Highest-resolution full-disc image of the Sun

The largest full-disc image of the Sun was taken by the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager, an instrument on the European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter probe, on 7 March 2022. The picture, which was captured from a distance of 75 million kilometres (46.6 million miles; about half-way between Earth and the Sun) is a multi-exposure composite measuring 9,148 x 9,112 pixels.

The Solar Orbiter took 25 pictures over a period of four hours which were then stitched together to create this single full-disc image of the sun. The 83 megapixel image has about ten times the resolution of a 4k TV.

As its name suggests, the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager focuses on the shortest wavelengths of ultraviolet light, at a wavelength of 17 nanometres (visible light is between 400 and 70 nanometres). This reveals the details of the Sun's upper atmosphere, called the Corona.