Few 1-year-olds are as fearless explorers as NASA and the European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter. The space probe is already 138 million kilometers from Earth and is about to take babies’s first trip behind the Sun.
Launched on February 10, 2020, it is finally a connecting season for the merry little spacecraft, which refers to the apparent proximity of sin to the sun as seen through the eyes on earth. Solar Orbiter is built like a cosmic water skipper and is responsible for observing the sun in incredible detail. It will inspect everything, from our star’s solar wind to its solar cycles. The probe is now about 25,000 Great Walls of China away from Earth and can provide feedback on the features of the star that have never been seen before.
‘Op 10 [February], we will be in the perihelion; that is, the closest approach to the sun of the current orbit, just under half the distance between the sun and the earth, ”said Daniel Müller, a project scientist of the Solar Orbiter at ESA, in an e -pos said. “This will enable us to observe the sun at a very high resolution.”
Solar Orbiter is equipped with various imagery that will look at the sun from a record proximity. (The cameras have recently paid dividends catch three of the solar system’s planets in one field of view). There is many instruments we look at our Sun at any given time, but Solar Orbiter’s unique range of instruments offers a whole new perspective.
The orbit poses no immediate dangers due to the heat on the other side of the sun. It contains a heat shield covered with black calcium phosphate, which helps the stargazer withstand temperatures of almost 1000 degrees Fahrenheit.
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More worrying is the fickle nature of the sun’s heliosphere, which can disrupt radio signals from the earth trying to reach sin, which can slow down cosmic correspondence and even completely suppress communication.
Fortunately, NASA and the ESA have prepared for such challenges. Even in radio silence, the orbit will record its observations remotely, for terrestrial download once the connection is restored.
“Our baseline is to be able to communicate with Solar Orbiter at all times, except periods during which the satellite is ‘behind the sun’, seen from Earth,” Müller said. “From February 12, the angle between Sun, Earth and Solar Orbiter will be greater than 5 degrees, and we will be able to start switching off data again at nominal telemetry speeds.”
The spacecraft, which is expected to follow its next flight from Venus (its second out of a planned seven) in August, in August, will be followed by an Earth fly in late November. As always in space exploration, new horizons await us.