“Slow” Solar Wind: Mysterious Origins Unmasked by Solar Orbiter
The Solar Orbiter is helping identify the source of the ‘slow’ solar wind, advancing our knowledge of solar processes and their influence on space weather….
Solar Orbiter News
The Solar Orbiter is a space mission collaboratively developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA, launched in February 2020 with the purpose of studying the Sun. It is designed to get closer to the Sun than the orbit of Mercury, providing unprecedented observations of the Sun’s surface and its outer atmosphere, the corona. The Solar Orbiter carries a suite of ten scientific instruments, which enable it to capture high-resolution images and gather data on the Sun’s magnetic fields, solar wind, and solar flares. One of its key objectives is to explore the Sun’s polar regions, which have been relatively unexamined but are crucial for understanding the Sun’s magnetic field and its effect on space weather. The data collected by the Solar Orbiter will help scientists better understand the Sun’s dynamics and its impact on the heliosphere, thereby improving our ability to forecast space weather events that can affect satellites and terrestrial technologies.
Solar Orbiter Captures the Sun’s Fluffy Corona in Stunning Detail [Video]
Stunning close-up views of the Sun reveal its dynamic magnetic structures and extreme temperatures, captured by ESA’s Solar Orbiter in collaboration with NASA’s Parker Solar…
Solar Orbiter’s Breakthrough: Decoding the Sun’s Million-Degree Corona
Recent images from the Solar Orbiter’s perihelion pass in October 2022 have unveiled the role of transient magnetic fields on the Sun’s surface in shaping…
Solar Orbiter Closes in on Sun’s Biggest Secret: Solving a 65-Year-Old Cosmic Mystery
A cosmic alignment and a little bit of spacecraft gymnastics have provided a ground-breaking measurement that is helping solve the 65-year-old cosmic mystery of why…
Uncharted Solar Realms: Camera “Hack” Lets Solar Orbiter Peer Deeper Into Sun’s Atmosphere
Scientists have used Solar Orbiter’s EUI camera in a new mode of operation to record part of the Sun’s atmosphere at extreme ultraviolet wavelengths that…
Sun’s Mighty Solar Wind Powered by Tiny “Picoflare Jets” Within Coronal Holes
Images from the Solar Orbiter revealed small “picoflare” jets within a coronal hole on the Sun, which might supply energy to the solar wind, enhancing…
Solar Orbiter Spacecraft Discovers Tiny Jets That Could Power the Solar Wind
The ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter spacecraft has discovered a multitude of tiny jets of material escaping from the Sun’s outer atmosphere. Each jet lasts between 20…
Solar Orbiter Sheds Light on the Sun’s Burning Mystery
ESA’s Solar Orbiter may have taken another step towards solving the eighty-year-old mystery of why the Sun’s outer atmosphere is so hot. On March 3,…
See a Solar Snake Slither Across the Sun’s Surface – At 380,000 Miles per Hour
Credit: ESA & NASA/Solar Orbiter/EUI Team; Acknowledgment: Frédéric Auchère, IAS Solar Orbiter has detected a ‘tube’ of cooler atmospheric gases rapidly snaking its way through…
Strange Phenomenon on Sun Imaged by Solar Orbiter for First Time – Mystery Solved
With fresh data from its closest pass of the Sun thus far, the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter spacecraft has found compelling clues as to the origin…
Coronal Mass Ejection Hits Solar Orbiter Spacecraft Before Venus Gravity-Assist Flyby
In the early hours of Sunday, September 4, Solar Orbiter flew by Venus for a gravity-assist maneuver that alters the spacecraft’s orbit, which will get…
Incredible New Views of the Sun – As You’ve Never Seen It Before
Powerful eruptions, breathtaking views across the solar poles, and a strange solar ‘hedgehog’ are among the incredible haul of spectacular images, movies, and data returned…
Solar Orbiter: Tracking Sunspots Up Close
The ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter spacecraft just made its historic first close pass of the Sun, which happened midday on March 26, 2022. In the days…
Solar Orbiter Spacecraft Captures the Full Sun in Unprecedented Detail
The newest photographs from the Solar Orbiter reveal unprecedented detail of the whole Sun. They were taken on March 7, 2022, when the spacecraft passed…
Solar Orbiter Crosses the Earth-Sun Line As It Speeds Towards Its Historic First Close Pass of the Sun
The ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter spacecraft is speeding towards its historic first close pass of the Sun. On March 14, the spacecraft will pass the orbit…
Massive Solar Eruption Captured by Solar Orbiter Spacecraft
The ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter spacecraft has captured the largest solar prominence eruption ever observed in a single image together with the full solar disc. Solar…
Solar Orbiter Spacecraft Catches a Second Comet by the Tail
For the second time in its mission so far, the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter spacecraft has flown through the tail of a comet. Predicted in advance…
A Christmas Comet for Solar Orbiter: Heliospheric Imager Captures Comet Leonard
Comet Leonard, a mass of space dust, rock, and ice about a kilometer across is heading for a close pass of the Sun on 3…