How we photograph and study the blazing heart at the center of our solar system, the sun

The European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter is the spacecraft that has allowed us to finally make these incredibly detailed, high resolution photographs of the sun.

This study is going to help us to better understand how the sun effects space weather.

The solar wind of the Sun is a driving force in the nature of our solar system.

As a solar minimum was reached in December 2019 , the next solar maximum is scheduled to hit in July 2025 .

The largest solar flare that we've been able to recognize and record hit the Earth in September 1859 , known as the Carrington Event .

This level of event is what's known as a coronal mass ejection, and luckily these don't happen often.

We do get hit by lower level solar flares once every decade or so.

But scientists are hopeful that by using the ESA Solar Orbiter to study the activity of the sun up close, we can learn to understand and maybe even predict these kinds of solar events.

We are balancing on a knife edge of life, giving energy and instant destruction.

It's probably best to know as much as we possibly can about the forces at play.