“Campfires” on the Sun Offer Clue to Solar Heating Mystery
Computer simulations show that the miniature solar flares nicknamed ‘campfires’, discovered last year by ESA’s Solar Orbiter, are likely driven by a process that may…
Solar Orbiter News
ESA’s Solar Orbiter Spacecraft Communications Disrupted by the Sun
What happens when the Solar System’s No. 1 source of violent energy interferes with spacecraft communication? Name? Solar Orbiter, or ‘Solo’ as the mission control…
Two Spacecraft Designed to Study the Sun Also Got Some Recent Peeks at Earth and Other Planets
Looking Around the Neighborhood Though they focus on the star at the center of our solar system, some Sun-watching spacecraft recently captured unique views of…
A New View of Small Sun Structures Allows NASA to Explore the Solar Wind Like Never Before
Scientists have combined NASA data and cutting-edge image processing to gain new insight into the solar structures that create the Sun’s flow of high-speed solar…
Solar Orbiter Spacecraft Prepares for Festive Venus Flyby
Solar Orbiter is getting ready for the first of many gravity assist flybys of Venus on December 27, to start bringing it closer to the…
Solar Orbiter: Turning Pictures Into Physics – Solar ‘Campfires’, Space Weather, and Disintegrating Comets
Solar Orbiter’s latest results show that the mission is making the first direct connections between events at the solar surface and what’s happening in interplanetary…
First Data From Solar Orbiter Released to the Public
ESA has released its first Solar Orbiter data to the scientific community and the wider public. The instruments contributing to this data release come from…
Closer Than Ever: Solar Orbiter’s First Views of the Sun [Video]
The first images from ESA’s Solar Orbiter are already exceeding expectations and revealing interesting new phenomena on the Sun. This animation combines a series of…
Solar Orbiter Snaps Closest Pictures Ever of the Sun – Reveals New “Campfires” Phenomena
The first images from Solar Orbiter, a new Sun-observing mission by ESA and NASA, have revealed omnipresent miniature solar flares, dubbed “campfires,” near the surface…
“Campfires” Spotted on Sun in First Solar Orbiter Images – Closest Pictures Ever of the Sun
The first images from ESA/NASA’s Solar Orbiter are now available to the public, including the closest pictures ever taken of the Sun. Solar Orbiter is…
Watch NASA/ESA Solar Orbiter Mission First Image Release – Closer to Sun That Any Spacecraft in History
Scientists from NASA and ESA (European Space Agency) will release the first data captured by Solar Orbiter, the joint ESA/NASA mission to study the Sun,…
Solar Orbiter Ready for Science – Completed Commissioning Despite COVID-19 Setbacks
ESA’s Solar Orbiter has successfully completed four months of painstaking technical verification, known as commissioning. Despite the challenges imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the spacecraft…
Solar Orbiter Made First Close Approach to the Sun Today [Video]
ESA’s Sun-exploring mission Solar Orbiter has made its first close approach to the star on June 15, getting as close as 77 million kilometers to…
NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory Watches Comet ATLAS As Solar Orbiter Crosses Its Tail
NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory, or STEREO-A spacecraft, captured these images of comet ATLAS as it swooped by the Sun from May 25 – June…
Expect the Unexpected: Solar Orbiter to Pass Through the Tails of Comet ATLAS
ESA’s Solar Orbiter will cross through the tails of Comet ATLAS during the next few days. Although the recently launched spacecraft was not due to…
Solar Orbiter Science Instrument Sends First Measurements to Ground Control
First measurements by a Solar Orbiter science instrument reached the ground on Thursday February 13, 2020, providing a confirmation to the international science teams that…
ESA Planetary Defence Catches Final Glimpse of Solar Orbiter
Last night, ESA’s Planetary Defence team observed the rare moment in which an object escaped our planet’s gravity, in contrast to their normal objects of…
Solar Orbiter Launch Highlights [Video]
Highlights from the preparation and liftoff of ESA’s Sun-exploring mission Solar Orbiter. Solar Orbiter lofted to space aboard the US Atlas V 411 rocket from…
