OK, This is something you don’t see all day.

On November 18, 2020, the The solar orbit It captured three of the eight planets of our solar system in one frame, according to the European Space Agency statement. The resulting four-second movie was stitched together from a series of still images captured 22 hours.

Venus is the largest and brightest object, followed by Earth And then Mars is in the lower-right of the frame. What’s especially cool about this nuanced point is that the probe is staring back at the solar system as it heads away from the sun toward Venus.

When the images were taken, the Solar Orbiter was 30 million miles (48 million km) from Venus, 156 million miles (251 million km) from Earth, and 206 million miles (332 million km) from Mars. The sun is out of frame to the lower right, but its glow is clearly visible.

The spacecraft, a collaboration between NASA and European Void AgencyOn her way to Venus to seek gravity’s help when taking pictures It was taken using Solar Envelope Camera (SoloHI). The orbiting solar module finally flew over Venus on December 27. A steady diet of flying with Earth and Venus will bring the probe closer to the sun It also tilts the axis of its orbit so that it can observe the sun from different angles.

Launched in February 2020 Equipped with 10 different instruments, the Solar Orbiter is important for studying the sun up close. The closest images of the sun, taken last July, were previously unknown.Campfires“On the surface of our star, the revelations of stellar processes were only dreamed of theoretically.

The probe is also studying conditions in its immediate vicinity, that is, the solar wind, or charged particles, flowing from the sun to Void. The resulting data will help scientists predict stormy space weather that could be damaging Communications and technology on the ground.