We've Never Seen the Sun's Poles. That's About to Change With Solar Orbiter
On February 9, 2020, the European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter spacecraft launched from Cape Canaveral Florida on top of an Atlas V 411 spacecraft. The spacecraft’s mission is to fly inside the orbit of Mercury, on a tilted orbit that takes it above and below the Sun, capturing images of the Sun’s poles for the first time.
This is just a year and a half after the launch of NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, which will fly even closer. Together, the two spacecraft will measure the Sun from every angle up close, providing detailed images and insights of our closest star, to help understand how it creates and controls the giant bubble of plasma that surrounds the entire Solar System.
You can watch the video on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lmo1y7ntwBs
In case you missed it, here's a link to Monday's Open Space episode:
We've Never Seen the Sun's Poles. That's About to Change With Solar Orbiter.mp4 (Vimeo)
Comments (2)
I find it interesting to know that it is harder to get to the inner part of the Solar System than to the outer as it would seem logical to use the gravity of the Sun but as I understand that is the problem?
If you start on the Earth, you've already perfectly balanced the gravity from the Sun, so it's not any help. You need to cancel the sideways velocity of 30 km/s from the Earth's orbit.