Published 16:29 IST, January 29th 2021

NASA & ESA show stunning images of how 'Earth and solar system neighbours' look from space

NASA and European Space Agency on Tuesday, January 26, released images of different planets captured by their Sun probe, which is called Solar Orbiter.

Science News
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American space agency NASA and European Space Agency on Tuesday, January 26, released images of different planets captured by their Sun probe, which is called Solar Orbiter. Both the agencies have a joint sun probe and using it they captured absolutely stunning images of planets like Earth, Venus, and Mars. As per the official website, the solar orbiter contains six remote sensing telescopes, and four in-situ instruments.

Beautiful visuals by Solar Orbiter

The post comprises three parts. The first part is a video that shows Venus, Earth, and Mars. The second part includes images from Parker Solar Probe, which saw six of our solar system’s planets as it flew by the Sun on June 7, 2020. Lastly, the third part shows the same scene from a different perspective of a STEREO spacecraft. In the solar orbiter, the remote sensing instruments look at the Sun and its extended atmosphere, the corona. The in-situ instruments measure the particles around the spacecraft, which have been released by the Sun and are known as the solar wind.

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The European Space Agency also shared similar visuals. According to the caption, the solar orbiter is the most complex scientific laboratory ever to have been built to study the Sun and the solar wind, taking images of our star from closer than any spacecraft before. The caption says, “During its initial cruise phase, which lasts until November 2021, Solar Orbiter is already acquiring data constantly with its four in situ instruments. These instruments measure the conditions around the spacecraft itself”. Let’s have a look at the stunning visuals.

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Stunned by the images, netizens bombarded the comment section. One Instagram user wrote, "so beautiful". The visuals have managed to gather over 50K likes. Netizens can be seen leaving heart emojis in the comment section.