Sun ID: 13527

New Mission Will Take First Peek at Sun’s Poles

Released on January 27, 2020

A new spacecraft is journeying to the Sun to snap the first pictures of the Sun’s north and south poles. Solar Orbiter, a collaboration between ESA (the European Space Agency) and NASA will have its first opportunity to launch from Cape Canaveral on Feb. 7, 2020, at 11:15 p.m. EST. Launching on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, the spacecraft will use Venus’ and Earth’s gravity to swing itself out of the ecliptic plane — the swath of space, roughly aligned with the Sun’s equator, where all planets orbit. From there, Solar Orbiter's bird’s eye view will give it the first-ever look at the Sun's poles.

Video

Watch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.

Music credits: “Oxide” and “Virtual Tidings” by Andrew Michael Britton [PRS], David Stephen Goldsmith [PRS]; “Progressive Practice” by Emmanuel David Lipszc [SACEM], Franck Lascombes [SACEM], Sebastien Lipszyc [SACEM]; “Political Spectrum” by Laurent Dury [SACEM} from Universal Production Music

Complete transcript available.

Source Material

Credits

Scientists:
Daniel Mueller (ESA)
Holly Gilbert (NASA/GSFC)
Teresa Nieves-Chinchilla (Catholic University of America)
Chris St. Cyr (NASA/GSFC)

Producer:
Joy Ng (USRA)

Data Visualizer:
Tom Bridgman (GST)

Animators:
Adriana Manrique Gutierrez (USRA)
Chris Smith (USRA)
Joy Ng (USRA)
Lisa Poje (USRA)
Krystofer Kim (USRA)
Brian Monroe (USRA)

Writer:
Miles S. Hatfield (Telophase)

Videographers:
John Caldwell (AIMM)
Rob Andreoli (AIMM)

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13527

Mission:
Solar Orbiter Collaboration

This item is part of this series:
Narrated Movies

Keywords:
SVS >> Solar Cycle
SVS >> Solar Wind
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Sun-earth Interactions >> Solar Activity >> Solar Flares
SVS >> Space Weather
SVS >> SDO
SVS >> Solar Dynamics Observatory
SVS >> Heliophysics
SVS >> Corona
NASA Science >> Sun
SVS >> Solar Orbiter

GCMD keywords can be found on the Internet with the following citation: Olsen, L.M., G. Major, K. Shein, J. Scialdone, S. Ritz, T. Stevens, M. Morahan, A. Aleman, R. Vogel, S. Leicester, H. Weir, M. Meaux, S. Grebas, C.Solomon, M. Holland, T. Northcutt, R. A. Restrepo, R. Bilodeau, 2013. NASA/Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Earth Science Keywords. Version 8.0.0.0.0