NASA in recent days released the first images from Solar Orbiter to the public, including the closest pictures ever taken of the sun.
Solar Orbiter is a joint NASA/European Space Agency (ESA) endeavor. The spacecraft launched atop United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Atlas V rocket on February 9.
The Atlas V is built at ULA’s world-class 1.6 million square foot plant in Decatur, Alabama.
After being successfully launched, the Solar Orbiter began a commissioning phase of approximately three months, during which the mission team ran checks on its 10 scientific instruments to ensure proper functionality.
According to NASA, the spacecraft completed its first close pass of the sun last month.
“These unprecedented pictures of the Sun are the closest we have ever obtained,” stated Holly Gilbert, NASA project scientist for the mission. “These amazing images will help scientists piece together the Sun’s atmospheric layers, which is important for understanding how it drives space weather near the Earth and throughout the solar system.”
It will take Solar Orbiter about two years from launch to reach its primary science orbit. The stated goal of the historic mission is to deliver never-before-seen views of the sun while providing new information on how the star affects space weather. Scientists hope to collect data that will help them gain a better understanding of the sun’s behavior.
“We didn’t expect such great results so early,” added Daniel Müller, ESA’s Solar Orbiter project scientist. “These images show that Solar Orbiter is off to an excellent start.”
You can view all of the publicly released images here, courtesy of ESA.
Alabamians played crucial roles in the incredibly complex February launch of the Solar Orbiter.
In addition to the Atlas V rocket having been built in the Yellowhammer State, the person that oversaw the launch for NASA is a native Alabamian.
This is the second recent mission that ULA has powered to the sun. In 2018, one of its Alabama-built Delta IV Heavy rockets launched the Parker Solar Probe.
That historic mission saw yet another milestone earlier this year when the probe passed within 11 million miles of the sun. No spacecraft had ever flown that close before. While the Parker Solar Probe flies closer to the sun than Solar Orbiter, the former does not carry telescopes capable of looking directly at the star.
A team from the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) is also heavily involved in the Parker Solar Probe mission.
Sean Ross is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn
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