The sun is still a burning mystery. That may be about to change.
The historic launch of the new European Solar Orbiter helps foster a golden age for understanding our nearest star.
BYNADIA DRAKE
PUBLISHED FEBRUARY 7, 2020
9 MIN READ
PUBLISHED FEBRUARY 7, 2020
9 MIN READ
On Sunday evening, a rocket lit up Floridas nighttime sky as it ferried a spacecraft toward a first-of-its-kind adventure to the sun.
Even though our home star smolders every day in our skies, humans have only ever seen the sun from one perspective: face-on, from within the plane of the planets. The European Space Agencys Solar Orbiter, or SolO, is about to change that, as it is designed to perform a detailed reconnaissance of the sun that will allow it to see the stars previously invisible polar regions.
From this unique vantage point, SolOs suite of 10 instruments will help uncover how the star sends streams of energetic particles called the solar wind throughout our planetary system. It will also help answer what controls the suns 11-year magnetic cycle, which varies in intensity and creates unanticipated fluctuations in solar activity.
We fundamentally really dont understand that, says ESAs Daniel Müller, SolO project scientist. Hopefully, were filling in that gap with Solar Orbiter.
More:
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/sun-still-burning-mystery-may-be-about-to-change-solar-orbiter-launch?cmpid=org=ngp::mc=crm-email::src=ngp::cmp=editorial::add=SpecialEdition_Escape_20210324&rid=FEF3402516DD393FC5D933E45FF75D5D