First Ever Close-Up Look at Solar Flare

MESSENGER's Second Flyby of Mercury. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

The MESSENGER spacecraft got the closest look at a solar flare in human history, from a distance of about ½ AU (an Astronomical Unit is defined as the distance between our Sun and the Earth, approximately 93 million miles).  The Mercury, Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging Mission, or MESSENGER, is tasked with studying Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun.   It will insert into orbit around Mercury on March 18th, 2011.

SpaceDaily has more details of the data it recorded on the solar flare.  Studying solar flares is crucial to understanding how the Sun works, and how flares affect our climate here on Earth.  Flares also affect our satellites, and can have deadly consequences for astronauts.  By increasing what we know about what cause these  eruptions, we will improve our ability to predict when they will occur.

Source: SpaceDaily and NASA’s MESSENGER Mission