Solar probe reveals sun's tiny 'campfires' in closest-ever photos

What are called ?campfires?, annotated with white arrows, are seen in a combination the closest images ever obtained of the Sun, made by the Solar Orbiter spacecraft and released by NASA July 16, 2020. Solar Orbiter/EUI Team (ESA & NASA); CSL, IAS, MPS, PMOD/WRC, ROB, UCL/MSSL/Handout via REUTERS

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A solar probe built by the European Space Agency and NASA has delivered the closest photos ever taken of the sun's surface, revealing a landscape rife with thousands of tiny solar flares that scientists dubbed "campfires" and offering clues about the extreme heat of the outermost part of its atmosphere.

"When the first images came in, my first thought was, 'This is not possible - it can't be that good,'" David Berghmans, principal investigator for the Solar Orbiter spacecraft's ultraviolet imager at the Royal Observatory of Belgium, told reporters on Thursday.