Europe and NASA's Solar Orbiter rocketed into space Sunday night on an unprecedented mission to capture the first pictures of the sun's elusive poles.
[...]The $1.5 billion spacecraft will join NASA's Parker Solar Probe, launched 1 1/2 years ago, in coming perilously close to the sun to unveil its secrets.
While Solar Orbiter won't venture close enough to penetrate the sun's corona, or crown-like outer atmosphere, like Parker, it will maneuver into a unique out-of-plane orbit that will take it over both poles, never photographed before. Together with powerful ground observatories, the sun-staring space duo will be like an orchestra, according to Gunther Hasinger, the European Space Agency's science director.
[...]Solar Orbiter was made in Europe, along with nine science instruments. NASA provided the 10th instrument and arranged the late-night launch from Cape Canaveral.
[...]The rocket was visible for four full minutes after liftoff, a brilliant star piercing the night sky. Europe's project scientist Daniel Mueller was thrilled, calling it "picture perfect." His NASA counterpart, scientist Holly Gilbert, exclaimed, "One word: Wow."
NASA declared success 1 1/2 hours later, once the Solar Orbiter's solar wings were unfurled.
Solar Orbiter—a boxy 4,000-pound (1,800-kilogram) spacecraft with spindly instrument booms and antennas—will swing past Venus in December and again next year, and then past Earth, using the planets' gravity to alter its path. Full science operations will begin in late 2021, with the first close solar encounter in 2022 and more every six months.
At its closest approach, Solar Orbiter will come within 26 million miles (42 million kilometers) of the sun, well within the orbit of Mercury.
Parker Solar Probe, by contrast, has already passed within 11.6 million miles (18.6 million kilometers) of the sun, an all-time record, and is shooting for a slim gap of 4 million miles (6 million kilometers) by 2025. But it's flying nowhere near the poles. That's where Solar Orbiter will shine.
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First measurements by a Solar Orbiter science instrument reached the ground on Thursday 13 February providing a confirmation to the international science teams that the magnetometer on board is in good health following a successful deployment of the spacecraft's instrument boom.
Solar Orbiter, ESA's new sun-exploring spacecraft, launched on Monday 10 February. It carries ten scientific instruments, four of which measure properties of the environment around the spacecraft, especially electromagnetic characteristics of the solar wind, the stream of charged particles flowing from the sun. Three of these 'in situ' instruments have sensors located on the 4.4 m-long boom.
"We measure magnetic fields thousands of times smaller than those we are familiar with on Earth," says Tim Horbury of Imperial College London, Principal Investigator for the Magnetometer instrument (MAG). "Even currents in electrical wires make magnetic fields far larger than what we need to measure. That's why our sensors are on a boom, to keep them away from all the electrical activity inside the spacecraft."
Ground controllers at the European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany, switched on the magnetometer's two sensors (one near the end of the boom and the other close to the spacecraft) about 21 hours after liftoff. The instrument recorded data before, during and after the boom's deployment, allowing the scientists to understand the influence of the spacecraft on measurements in the space environment.
"The data we received shows how the magnetic field decreases from the vicinity of the spacecraft to where the instruments are actually deployed," adds Tim. "This is an independent confirmation that the boom actually deployed and that the instruments will, indeed, provide accurate scientific measurements in the future."
[Emphasis in original. -Ed.]
Previously:
Solar Orbiter Blasts Off to Capture First Look at Sun's Poles
Iran Satellite Launch Fails; ESA Solar Orbiter Launch Succeeds (So Far)
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Tuesday February 11 2020, @02:48AM
clang clang clang goes the trolley... [youtube.com]
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 11 2020, @03:56AM
I've got a pole ready to blast off right here, hehehe.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 11 2020, @04:23AM
https://www.kapwing.com/videos/5e420081deac72001637906d [kapwing.com]
For those reluctant to click on links it includes the old Flash theme song, SFW/RFL
(Score: 3, Informative) by dwilson on Tuesday February 11 2020, @04:38AM (4 children)
I look forward to seeing what it discovers. Ever seen pictures of Jupiter's poles.
Weird. As. Fuck.
We have literally No Idea what's going on at the Sun's poles, or what they look like. Exciting!
- D
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 11 2020, @06:00AM
(note to myself: in 2022, appear excited about Sun's poles, lest the people will look weirdly at you)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 11 2020, @12:35PM (1 child)
Yeah, I really wonder, will there be water ice on the sun's poles?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 11 2020, @03:29PM
Then that would mean we could set up a colony there! Let some billionaire space tourists be the pathfinders for such a mission.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday February 11 2020, @03:23PM
They'll find an inscription at the South Pole. "Made in Japan".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 11 2020, @03:03PM
WTF?