Scientists have revealed the closest images ever taken of the Sun, which show mini solar flares, called “campfires”, dotted across its surface.The images were captured last month by the Solar Orbiter, a European Space Agency probe designed and built in the UK, when it came within 47 million miles of the Sun’s surface.The close pass, known as a perihelion, put the spacecraft between the orbits of Venus and Mercury.Solar flares are brief eruptions of high-energy radiation from the Sun’s surface, which can cause radio and magnetic disturbances on the Earth.
