Faces of The Sun: Coronal Holes | European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter

Faces of The Sun: Coronal Holes | European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter

The Sun is a ball of partially—fully ionized gas, rotating on its axies, generating magnetic field, that bubbles up to the surface, breaking through and causing a wide range of dynamics within the corona. We often talk about flares and solar eruptions, since they can pose a very real threat to electronics and humans alike. The most energetic of these are, more often than not, sourced from active regions. Tight concentrations of magnetic field that can get twisted up until equilibrium is no longer possible.

Elsewhere on the Sun, one could consider the conditions relatively quiet—far less prone to eruptions and generally appear somewhat 'fluffy' in comparison, given the more diffuse emission from the somewhat cooler plasma hosted there. In the extreme, regions known as 'coronal holes', plasma is so diffuse and the magnetic field so un twisted that the emission is significantly less—they could be defined as this exact absence of dynamics, comparatively.

These observations taken in April 2025 capture, in a single field-of-view, from left to right, the active, intermediate, quiet, and coronal hole conditions. Perfectly highlighting how the Sun manages to not only produce dramatically different conditions within the corona, but also positions them immediately next to one another in such a majestic way. These specific observations targeted this region as these strong changes in physical properties over such a short distance within the solar corona are understood to drive the solar wind. The solar wind that we measure in-situ from this region can tell us about what physically happened to the associated plasma.

Solar Orbiter will keep a close eye on the Sun—including its poles—for years to come. Its unique viewing angle will change our understanding of the Sun’s magnetic field, the solar cycle and the workings of space weather.

Learn more about ESA's Solar Obiter:
https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Solar_Orbiter

Credit: ESA & NASA/Solar Orbiter/EUI Team - Emil Kraaikamp, Royal Observatory of Belgium & JHelioviewer
Duration: 5 seconds
Release Date: Feb. 16, 2026

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