Solar Orbiter mission, developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) with the participation of NASA, has been launched from Cape Canaveral in the morning February 10. Solar Orbiter will rotate around the Sun in an orbit with a minimum distance below Mercury and outside the ecliptic, providing a unique perspective and allowing to observe the Sun's poles. In addition, their instruments will take local and remote action, which will bring the first vision.

During the initial cruise phase, which runs until November 2021, Solar Orbiter will perform two gravitational assistance maneuvers around Venus and one around the Earth, to raise its orbital plane and access high latitudes, allowing to get the first quality view of the magnetic field of the poles. At the same time, the mission will acquire data on-site and will characterize and calibrate its remote sensing instruments.

The first approach to the Sun will take place in 2022, to approximately a third of the distance between the Earth and the Sun. In its most nearby orbits it will be located to approximately forty two million kilometers of the Sun, a distance slightly less than that of Mercury.

Javier Rodríguez-Pacheco, main investigator of the instrument EPD and professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics of Universidad de Alcalá (UAH) mentions that 'the results left by Solar Orbiter in the coming years will be key to understanding the mysteries of the Sun and how it affects our planet. We live next to a star and it´s our responsibility, like intelligent species, knowing it and to be able to predict those changes that that may affect life on Earth'.

During the time that the mission lasts, the satellite will get never-before-seen images of our nearest star. In fact, it will be the first satellite in doing remarks of the solar poles, since it will take on board several telescopes.

ESA aims to capture details of 180 kilometers wide (the width of the Sun's visible disk is 1,4 million kilometers). The biggest approach to the Sun will be to approximately 42 million kilometers, closer than Mercury, the closest planet to the star. This closeness to the star will suppose to support temperatures of more of 500ºC, for what the ship is provided with a thermal shield especially designed to be able to work under these conditions.

Publicado en: Inglés