Europe's Solar Orbiter to hit the Sun on March 26, study winds emerging from the surface
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Loading... - Laura McLean
- 09 Mar 2022
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Weeks after Parker Solar Probe made its 11th close approach to the Sun, the European Solar Orbiter is not far behind. The probe is all set for its first historic approach the brightest star in our solar system as it comes close to the Sun on March 26 after crossing paths with Mercury on March 14.
At the moment, the massive probe is crossing directly between the Earth and the Sun, about halfway between our planet and its parent star. This unique position in space will allow scientists to study space weather and the Sun-Earth connection. The probe will study the constant stream of particles known as the solar wind that affects the environment in the vacuum of space.
The European Space Agency (ESA) said that scientists can use today’s Earth-Sun line crossing to study it in a unique way, combining Solar Orbiter observations with those of other spacecraft operating nearer the Earth, such as the Hinode and IRIS spacecraft in Earth orbit, and SOHO, stationed 1.5 million kilometers away from Earth.
The Solar Orbiter is around 75 million kilometers away from the Sun as of now, moving closer every second. This is the same distance as the spacecraft achieved during its close pass to the Sun on 15 June 2020. During the close approach later this month, the spacecraft may also be able to pinpoint the origin of any event on the solar surface.
"Even if no big event takes place there is still a lot of science that can be performed in analysing the evolution of the same packet of the solar wind as it travels outwards into the Solar System," the European space agency said in a statement.
When the Solar Orbiter arrives at its new destination on March 26, it will be less than one-third of the distance from the Sun to the Earth. ESA will target ground-based telescopes to the Sun as well in an attempt to reveal more information about the miniature flares dubbed campfires that the mission revealed in its first images. Read More…
