NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) have jointly collaborated to launch the new Solar Orbiter on 9 February 2020 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, US.

• It will study the Sun’s north and south poles, from above and below the Sun’s equator, and provide insight about the Sun’s powerful magnetic field and how it affects Earth.
• The Solar Orbiter’s predecessor, Ulysses’ view was limited to what it could see from the Sun’s equator.
• It has a suite of 10 instruments onboard that will capture the spacecraft’s view of the Sun’s corona (atmosphere), the poles and the solar disk.
• It can also use its variety of instruments to measure the Sun’s magnetic fields and solar wind, or the energized stream of particles emitted by the Sun that reaches across our solar system.
• Understanding the Sun’s magnetic field and solar wind is important because they contribute to space weather, which impacts Earth by interfering with networked systems like GPS, communications and even astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS).
• The Solar Orbiter will work in coordination with NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, which is currently orbiting the Sun on a 7-year mission.

While Parker is designed to sample particles coming off the Sun up close, the Solar Orbiter will fly farther back to capture more encompassing observations and provide a broader picture.

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