The Sun is the close star to us and yet there are still many unknown region . Some of these mysteries admit the complex processes within the star itself , while others are almost banal in compare but every bit important . For deterrent example , humanity has never seen what the terminal of the Sun look like .
The resolution to that and many more questions will soon be closer to realness thanks to theEuropean Space Agency ’s Solar Orbiterin coaction with NASA . The mission is launching this workweek from NASA ’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral . The Solar Orbiter will study the intimate structure of the Sun and the inner heliosphere , the bubble created by the electrically charged particles that make up the solar farting . By combine the datum with models , solar scientists trust to have a good estimation of the type of elements present in our hotshot .
“ I think the most exciting thing is that we ’re going to see the poles of the Sun and that ’s never been see before , ” Dr David Williams , one of the three instrument mathematical process scientists for Solar Orbiter , told IFLScience . “ On a slightly more scientific spirit level , the most exciting matter for me is that we will be able to chase after the composition and line of the clobber in the solar air current . ”
“ We always had some idea ‘ maybe it comes from there , maybe not from there ' but with Solar Orbiter we ’ll get it on . We ’ve got chemic fingerprint technology onboard that can detect the balance of different chemical element . So how much atomic number 6 , oxygen , He , and so on . And we ’ve got a telescope that can see what the chemical composition of every moment of the Sun is . We ’ve acquire what we postulate to find out what the solar fart “ smells ” like ! ”
The charge is slot to launch on Sunday , February 9 , 23:03 EST ( 04:03 GMT Monday , February 10 ) . Once the spacecraft is safely sort from the Atlas V 411 rocket add by NASA , it will start a 22 - minute activation sequence that will deploy the solar arrays and decisive instrumentality .
The skill charge , have its retinue of 10 instruments , wo n’t get going straight away but towards the end of 2021 . As the craft head towards the Sun , it will perform two gravity - aid maneuvers around Venus and one around Earth . This will put Solar Orbiter on an elliptical flight the gets as close as 42 million klick ( 26 million miles ) from the star topology .
To finally image the pole , the spacecraft needs to be “ plagiarize ” above the ecliptic , the plane where the planetary orb lie . This is possible using the gravitational attraction of Venus again . The craft ’s orbit is in resonance with Venus , so every few compass it is close to the satellite . As the ballistic capsule passes near Venus , it can habituate the planet ’s gravity to shift its field by doing a fuel burn . This will be used to evoke Solar Orbiter on a more tilted orbit , up to potentially 33 degrees with respectfulness to the ecliptic . While this is exciting , it also call for a bunch of long - term planning to verify the investigation is always at the right place at the right sentence .
“ It ’s really like a planetary - encounter mission . But this time , the ' planet ' is the cock-a-hoop object in the solar system , the Sun , ” Dr Williams explained .
The Solar Orbiter missionary post will be heighten with a collaboration withNASA ’s Parker Solar Probe , and vice versa . The two missions have been a long time in the making ; Dr Williams wish to think of them as sibling , even though their focal point and length from the Sun will be dissimilar . Parker will be less than 6.9 million klick ( 4.3 million miles ) aside .
“ Because [ Parker ] is so tight to the Sun , it whizzes around it quite rapidly . That means there are a number of time every year where the two spacecraft form of lie on the same stream of blood plasma that comes off the Sun . Parker can appraise upstream solar idle words and we can measure downstream to find out if the solar wind is smooth flowing further upstream or more turbulent like cosmic rapids , ” Dr Williams explained about the future work .
“ When you launch your mission , you discover all sort of stuff that you just did n’t intend live in nature . And crack up those mysteries is going to be really fun , especially with a sibling mission explore the same idea but from further into the solar system . ”
astronomer can hardly look for Solar Orbiter ’s young elaborate observations of the turbulent solar surface , the inexplicably hot Saint Elmo’s light , and how the solar wind changes . It has a nominal mission of seven years , and the team hop that it will be extended for a further three .
