New Mission Will Take First Peek at Sun’s Poles

AnimationCredit: ESA/ATG medialab || An animation showing the trajectory of Solar Orbiter around the Sun, highlighting the gravity assist manoeuvres that will enable the spacecraft to change inclination to observe the Sun from different perspectives.During the initial cruise phase, which lasts until November 2021, Solar Orbiter will perform two gravity-assist manoeuvres around Venus and one around Earth to alter the spacecraft’s trajectory, guiding it towards the innermost regions of the Solar System. At the same time, Solar Orbiter will acquire in situ data and characterise and calibrate its remote-sensing instruments. The first close solar pass will take place in 2022 at around a third of Earth’s distance from the Sun.The spacecraft’s orbit has been chosen to be ‘in resonance’ with Venus, which means that it will return to the planet’s vicinity every few orbits and can again use the planet’s gravity to alter or tilt its orbit. Initially Solar Orbiter will be confined to the same plane as the planets, but each encounter of Venus will increase its orbital inclination. For example, after the 2025 Venus encounter it will make its first solar pass at 17º inclination, increasing to 33º during a proposed mission extension phase, bringing even more of the polar regions into direct view.

A conceptual animation of the Sun with no magnetic field lines. || Solar Orbiter is an international cooperative mission between the European Space Agency and NASA that addresses a central question of heliophysics: How does the Sun create and control the constantly changing space environment throughout the solar system? The Sun creates what’s known as the heliosphere — a giant bubble of charged particles and magnetic fields blown outward by the Sun that stretches more than twice the distance to Pluto at its nearest edge, enveloping every planet in our solar system and shaping the space around us. To understand it, Solar Orbiter will travel as close as 26 million miles from the Sun, inside the orbit of Mercury. There, it will measure the magnetic fields, waves, energetic particles and plasma escaping the Sun while they are in their pristine state, before being modified and mixed in their long journey from the Sun. || A conceptual animation of the Sun with magnetic field lines. || Solar Orbiter orbiting the Sun. No field lines. || Solar Orbiter orbiting the Sun. With field lines. || Solar Orbiter orbiting the Sun. No field lines. || Solar Orbiter orbiting the Sun. With field lines.

Spacecraft separation - GIF Visualization of the separation of Solar Orbiter from the Atlas V upper stage about 53 minutes after launch. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab || Solar Orbiter is an European Space Agency (ESA) mission with strong NASA participation. Its mission is to perform unprecedented close-up observations of the Sun and from high-latitudes, providing the first images of the uncharted polar regions of the Sun, and investigating the Sun-Earth connection. || Spacecraft separation - Video Visualization of the separation of Solar Orbiter from the Atlas V upper stage about 53 minutes after launch. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab || Thrusters Solar Array Deployment - Video Visualization showing the thrusters adjust the attitude of the spacecraft before the solar arrays are deployed. The deployment happens in two stages: the first part takes place about five minutes after separation and is spring-driven, unfolding the solar arrays to about 40% within four minutes. The second part is motorised, and will fully extend the solar arrays. This part takes about ten minutes. The solar arrays will be fully deployed by about 40 minutes after spacecraft separation. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab || Boom / antenna deployments - GIFVisualization showing the deployment of various boom/antennas. In the beginning, the first Radio and Plasma Waves (RPW) antenna is deployed. Then the boom hosting a suite of scientific instruments is deployed (MAG, RPW, and SWA to measure the magnetic and electric fields, and solar wind around the spacecraft). Subsequently, the remaining two RPW antennas are deployed. Finally, the high gain antenna dish is unfurled. In reality this sequence is spaced out over a 24 hour period. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab || Boom / antenna deployments - VideoVisualization showing the deployment of various boom/antennas. In the beginning, the first Radio and Plasma Waves (RPW) antenna is deployed. Then the boom hosting a suite of scientific instruments is deployed (MAG, RPW, and SWA to measure the magnetic and electric fields, and solar wind around the spacecraft). Subsequently, the remaining two RPW antennas are deployed. Finally, the high gain antenna dish is unfurled. In reality this sequence is spaced out over a 24 hour period. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab || Venus Flyby - GIFVisualization of a Venus gravity flyby. Solar Orbiter will make numerous gravity assist flybys of Venus (and one of Earth) over the course of its mission to adjust its orbit, bringing it closer to the Sun and also out of the plane of the Solar System to observe the Sun from progressively higher inclinations. This will result in the spacecraft being able to take the first ever images of the Sun’s polar regions, crucial for understanding how the Sun ‘works’. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab || Venus Flyby - VideoVisualization of a Venus gravity flyby. Solar Orbiter will make numerous gravity assist flybys of Venus (and one of Earth) over the course of its mission to adjust its orbit, bringing it closer to the Sun and also out of the plane of the Solar System to observe the Sun from progressively higher inclinations. This will result in the spacecraft being able to take the first ever images of the Sun’s polar regions, crucial for understanding how the Sun ‘works’. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab || Facing the Sun Part 1 - GIFThis visualization begins by showing small sliding doors in the heatshield open to allow the internally-mounted remote-sensing instruments to observe the Sun. Special windows block out heat to protect the instruments during operations. The doors are closed when the instruments are not observing. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab || Facing the Sun Part 1 - VideoThis visualization begins by showing small sliding doors in the heatshield open to allow the internally-mounted remote-sensing instruments to observe the Sun. Special windows block out heat to protect the instruments during operations. The doors are closed when the instruments are not observing. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab || Facing the Sun Part 2 - GIFDuring its closest approaches of the Sun, Solar Orbiter will be travelling fast enough to study how magnetically active regions evolve for up to four weeks at a time. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab || Facing the Sun Part 2- VideoDuring its closest approaches of the Sun, Solar Orbiter will be travelling fast enough to study how magnetically active regions evolve for up to four weeks at a time. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab || A time-lapse of Solar Orbiter in a clean room. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab || Visualization of the launch of Solar Orbiter on an Atlas V 411. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab || Visualization of the Atlas V 411 fairing separation revealing Solar Orbiter attached to the rocket upper stage.Credit: ESA/ATG medialab || Visualization of Solar Orbiter making an Earth flyby. The spacecraft will make one Earth flyby during the early stages of its mission, in November 2021. It will make numerous flybys of Venus to adjust its orbit, bringing it closer to the Sun and also out of the plane of the Solar System to observe the Sun from progressively higher inclinations. This will result in the spacecraft being able to take the first ever images of the Sun’s polar regions, crucial for understanding how the Sun ‘works’. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab

The dynamic solar wind Observed near Earth, the solar wind is a relatively uniform flow of plasma, with occasional turbulent tumbles. But by that point it’s traveled over ninety million miles — and the signatures of the Sun s approximate location is represented as a dot icon.Credit: NASA Goddard/CIL/Jonathan North

Trailer without text introduction. Music credit: Luminous Skies [Underscore] by Andrew Prahlow from www.killertracks.comComplete transcript available.Watch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel. || July 20, 2018 - Live from NASA Kennedy - 1:00 p.m. ESTHosted by Karen Fox - Heliophysics Communications Lead, NASA Goddard/NASA HQSpeakers:Nicola Fox - Parker Solar Probe Project Scientist, The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics LabAlex Young - Solar Scientist from NASA GoddardThomas Zurbuchen - Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASABetsy Congdon - Thermal Protection System Engineer at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab || Image of Parker Solar Probe. Credit: APL/NASA GSFC || Beauty pass animation of Parker Solar Probe in the solar wind. Credit: NASA GSFC/CIL/Brian Monroe || Animation of the solar wind. Credit: NASA GSFC/CIL/Krystofer Kim || Photo of Eugene Parker. Credit: University of Chicago || Animation of a coronal mass ejection (CME) from the Sun. Credit: NASA GSFC/CIL/Krystofer Kim || Animation of a spacecraft being damaged by space weather. Credit: NASA GSFC/CIL/Krystofer Kim || Graphic illustrating the layers of the Sun. Credit: NASA GSFC/Mary Pat Hrybyk-Keith || Animation of Parker Solar Probe during a Venus flyby. Credit: Johns Hopkins University/APL/Steve Gribben || Animation of Parker Solar Probe s systems. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Lee HobsonComplete transcript available.

GIF of animated sun with corona and solar wind labels. || For the first time, using NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory, or STEREO, scientists have imaged the edge of the sun and described that transition – from which the solar wind blows. Defining the details of this boundary helps us learn more about our solar neighborhood, which is bathed throughout by solar material – a space environment that we must understand to safely explore beyond our planet. A paper on the findings was published in The Astrophysical Journal on Sept. 1, 2016. || Narrated video about discovering the boundary between the corona - the sun s consistency, marking the transition from the corona to the solar wind.

Highlights from the Solar Dynamics Observatory s Goddard Space Flight Center/SDO

Evolution of the solar magnetic field from 1997 to 2013. Version with time-stamp written in the image file. || During the course of the approximately 11 year sunspot cycle, the magnetic field of the Sun reverses. The last time this happened was around the year 2000. Using magnetograms from the SOHO/MDI and SDO/HMI instruments, it is possible to examine possible configurations of the magnetic field above the photosphere. These magnetic configurations are important in understanding potential conditions of severe space weather.The magnetic field in this animation is constructed using the Potential Field Source Surface (PFSS) model. The PFSS model is one of the simplest yet realistic models we can explore. Using the solar magnetograms as the for the high-speed solar wind. || Frames of the magnetic field movie. Instead of sequential frame numbers, the file name is tagged by year, month, and day: YYYYMMDD.

|| On Dec. 6, 2013, NASA scientists Alex Young and Holly Gilbert discussed how the sun s poles. || Image shows the magnetic fields of the sun have flipped from the previous image. The blue lines are now at top of the sun and red at the bottom.

Animation with no labels. || A coronal mass ejection erupts from the Sun and propagates out through the Solar System. Along the way it is detected by the spacecraft at Jupiter and Saturn. Eventually it is detected by the two Voyager spacecraft beyond the orbit of Pluto. This animation is based on CMEs produced during the Halloween storms of 2003. It is an update to a previous animation. || Animation with Labels. || Labels with Alpha Channel.