New pictures of the Sun taken just 77 million km (48 million miles) from its surface are the closest ever acquired by cameras.
These are millionths of the size of the Sun's giant flares that are routinely observed by Earth telescopes.
Whether these miniature versions are driven by the same mechanisms, though, is unclear. But these small flares could be involved in the mysterious heating process that makes the star's outer atmosphere, or corona, far hotter than its surface.
