Solar Orbiter

SOLAR ORBITER:

Solar Orbiter is the most complex scientific laboratory ever to have been sent to the Sun. Although our life-giving star has been an object of scientific interest for centuries, its behaviour still presents a puzzle for scientists.

ESA’s Solar Orbiter mission is conceived to perform a close-up study of our Sun and inner heliosphere - the uncharted innermost regions of our Solar System - to better understand, and even predict, the unruly behaviour of the star on which our lives depend. At its closest point, the spacecraft will be within the orbit of Mercury, braving the fierce heat to provide unique data and imagery of the Sun.

Solar Orbiter will be the first satellite to provide close-up views of the Sun's polar regions, which are very difficult to see from Earth, providing images from high latitudes. It will also be able to see solar storms building up over an extended period from the same viewpoint, delivering data of parts of the Sun not visible from Earth.

OBJECTIVES:

To perform close-up, high-resolution studies of our Sun and inner heliosphere, Solar Orbiter is intended to brave the fierce heat and carry its telescopes to just one-quarter of Earth's distance from our nearest star.

With a combination of in-situ and remote-sensing instruments Solar Orbiter will address the central question of heliophysics: How does the Sun create and control the heliosphere? This primary, overarching scientific objective can be expanded into four interrelated top-level scientific questions that will be addressed by Solar Orbiter:

What drives the solar wind and where does the coronal magnetic field originate from?
How do solar transients drive heliospheric variability?
How do solar eruptions produce energetic particle radiation that fills the heliosphere?
How does the solar dynamo work and drive connections between the Sun and the heliosphere?

HOW TO USE:

1) Activate "Solar Panels" activation group and set slider 1 at 100%.
2) Activate "Instruments" activation group and set slider 1 at -100%.
3) To finish, activate "Instruments 2" activation group and set slider 1 at -100%.
4) Be happy :).