What is the Solar Orbiter mission?

The Solar Orbiter is a joint ESA/NASA space probe designed to study the Sun and its inner heliosphere, providing close-up views of the Sun's polar regions and solar wind.

When was the Solar Orbiter launched?

The Solar Orbiter was launched on February 10, 2020, from Cape Canaveral, Florida, aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket.

What are the main scientific goals of Solar Orbiter?

Its primary goals include understanding how the Sun creates and controls the heliosphere, studying the solar wind's origin, and observing the uncharted solar poles.

How close does Solar Orbiter get to the Sun?

Solar Orbiter will get as close as 42 million kilometers (approximately 26 million miles) to the Sun, which is closer than the planet Mercury's orbit.

What makes Solar Orbiter unique among solar missions?

It is the first mission to provide images of the Sun's uncharted polar regions and combines close-up remote sensing observations with in-situ measurements of the solar wind it flies through.