ESA's Solar Orbiter Should Solve Mystery Of Sun's Outermost Atmosphere
ESA's Solar Orbiter mission will face the Sun from within the orbit of Mercury at its closest ... More approach.
The European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter mission recently stunned the world with the first-ever full images of our Sun's South pole, proving that this was going to be a mission like no other. Using an orbital gravity assist from the planet Venus, the Solar Orbiter mission spacecraft was able to maneuver into an orbit that has taken it to an angle 17 degrees below the Sun's equator.
Over the coming years, the spacecraft will tilt its orbit even further, so the best views are yet to come, says ESA.
The 1.2-billion-euro Solar Orbiter mission, with NASA participation, should finally help us understand the origin of the Sun's solar winds as well as our understanding of the Sun's poles. And arguably most importantly, it should solve the puzzle of why our star's outermost atmosphere, or corona, is heated to millions of degrees Kelvin and is thus so much hotter than the Sun's own surface. By contrast, our Sun's visible photosphere, or surface, averages only 5,500 degrees K.
With Solar Orbiter, we are clearly seeing energy releases on the nano-flare scale, Daniel Mueller, a solar physicist and ESA project scientist for both ESA's SOHO and Solar Orbiter missions to the Sun, tells me in his office in The Netherlands. But the question is, would these nano-flares continue like that infinitely, or is there a certain lower limit to the production of these nano-flares, Mueller wonders.
The puzzle is whether these nano-flares are enough to heat up the Sun's corona to the temperatures with which it is routinely measured.
A Unique View
Launched in 2020, from its highly elliptical orbit just inside Mercury's perihelion, the closest point in our innermost planet's solar orbit, the ESA spacecraft offers the best views yet of our own yellow dwarf star.
We can see on scales down to about 200 kilometers on the Sun, which shows us a lot of dynamics of our star, says Mueller.
And thanks to its newly tilted orbit around the Sun, the European Space Agency-led Solar Orbiter spacecraft is the first to image the Sun's poles from outside the ecliptic plane (the imaginary geometric plane in which our Earth orbits the Sun), says ESA.
We observed the Sun's North pole at the end of this past April, says Mueller. But we passed the Southern pole first and then the Northern pole six weeks later, he says.
At the moment, as seen from Earth, the Solar Orbiter is almost behind the Sun, so the data downlink has slowed to a trickle. But by early October, Mueller expects to have downloaded all the data from Solar Orbiter's Spring polar observations of the Sun.
And within a matter of two to three months after the data is on the ground, the first scientific results will have been written up and submitted to journals for publication, says Mueller.
These observations are also key to understanding the Sun's magnetic field and why it flips roughly every 11 years, coinciding with a peak in solar activity, says ESA. The spacecraft's instruments show that the Sun's South pole is a bit of a magnetic mess now, with both North and South polarity magnetic fields present, ESA notes.
Ready To Flip
Right now, there is not a clear dominant magnetic polarity, but a mix of the two, says Mueller. And that is exactly what you would expect to find during the maximum of the Sun's activity cycle, when the magnetic field is about to flip, he says.
The real applications are for space weather predictions. Case in point, better space weather forecasting may have saved many of Elon Musk's 523 Starlink satellites that reentered Earth's atmosphere between 2020 and 2024.
This period coincides with the rising phase of solar cycle 25, which has shown itself to be more intense than the previous solar cycle, the authors of a 2025 paper appearing in the journal Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences write. Our results indisputably show that satellites reenter faster with higher geomagnetic activity, the authors note.
There was a big solar storm that caused the earth's upper Earth atmosphere to expand, so, the satellites experienced more drag, and therefore didn't make it to orbit, says Mueller.
One option may have been simply to hold off on launches until this increased period of solar activity enabled a less risky geomagnetic environment in Earth's upper atmosphere. The hope is that the Solar Orbiter mission and other missions like it will lead to better and more reliable space weather predictions that could potentially save hundreds of millions of dollars in the commercial satellite industry.
Solar Orbiter should do its share in solving both pure solar physics conundrums as well as in more practical applications like space weather. The good news is that the spacecraft still has plenty of fuel left.
Our current funding goes until the end of 2026, but because we had a picture-perfect launch provided by United Launch Alliance and NASA, we saved a lot of fuel, says Mueller. So, the onboard fuel reserves are so large that we can keep going for a long time, he says.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Which animals can hold their breath underwater the longest?
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Getting enough oxygen in the water can be hard work. While fish and many other aquatic animals take air directly from the water through gills, other animals find ingenious ways to drag air bubbles down from the surface or trap air around their bodies. But others do it the hard way and hold their breath to dive, before coming up to the surface for air — and then repeat this process again and again. Some of these animals can stay submerged for staggering lengths of time. But which animal can hold its breath the longest? And what characteristics enable it to do this? Although diving times can reveal how long species typically stay underwater, the duration can vary depending on why they are staying submerged. "There is a difference between surviving under water (how long before they die) and breath holding (how long do they voluntarily stay submerged)," Wilco Verberk, an associate professor of ecology at Radboud University in the Netherlands, told Live Science in an email. For example, some animals could find themselves trapped below water. Some ants were seen to survive for multiple hours when forcibly submerged, but even specialized diving ants would not voluntarily dive for more than a minute, Philip Matthews, an associate professor at the University of British Columbia who studies insect respiration, told Live Science. Secondly, for animals to hold their breath, they need lungs, said John Spicer, a marine zoologist at the University of Plymouth in the U.K. "Holding breath only applies to animals with lungs and even then lunged animals that don't have gills as well (like lungfish) and/or breathe through their skin (like frogs)," Spicer told Live Science in an email. Related: How do marine mammals sleep underwater? The absolute champions for lunged animals staying submerged are certain freshwater turtles, such as the Blanding's turtle (Emydoidea blandingii). These reptiles practice brumation — a form of hibernation for reptiles — at the bottom of rivers and lakes during winter and can stay underwater for months at a time, which helps them survive when they are trapped beneath a layer of ice. Turtles are ectothermic, or cold-blooded, so during cold periods, their metabolism slows down, enabling them to conserve more energy and use less oxygen. "Many freshwater turtle species as the environmental temperature decreases switch everything off, and can stay submerged literally for months," Spicer said. "If brumation counts as holding your breath, then the freshwater turtles wipe the (river/lake) floor with everything else." However, these turtles cheat by taking in small amounts of oxygen in the water through their butts — or technically, their cloacae, which are multipurpose openings that are also used for sexual reproduction and egg-laying, as well as expelling waste. Size plays a crucial part in how long an animal can hold its breath, Verberk said. "Body size is a key trait, with larger animals being able to hold their breath for longer," Verberk said. "This is because oxygen stores tend to be larger in larger animals, also in relation to the rate at which they deplete them (larger animals tend to have lower mass specific demands for oxygen)." This means the competition for breath holding is between large mammals and large ectotherms such as crocodiles and sea turtles, he noted. The record dive by a mammal was completed by a Cuvier's beaked whale (Ziphius cavirostris), which stayed submerged for 222 minutes, or 3.7 hours. Other whales have also put in impressive dives: The record Arnoux's beaked whale dive (Berardius arnuxii) lasted 153 minutes, and a sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) managed 138 minutes, according to Verberk, Spicer and team's 2020 study. Whales accomplish this feat thanks to a number of key adaptations. These include slowing down their heart rate and or metabolism; redirecting blood flow away from parts of the body, temporarily shutting down organs such as the liver and kidneys; "and good oxygen storage capacity and release, from and in the large amounts of respiratory proteins in the muscles (myoglobin) and the blood (haemoglobin)," Spicer explained. In addition, these animals can switch to anaerobic metabolism and generate energy without using oxygen, Spicer added. "It is very inefficient in its conversion of food stuffs to energy, it is slow in doing so, and it produces a 'poison' lactic acid — so it's an emergency response for us," Spicer explained. "Diving mammals also resort to anaerobic metabolism and generate lactate but seem to be [a] bit better at putting up with it — and buffering the effect of the acid build up." Elephant seals (Mirounga angustirostris and Mirounga leonina) have also recorded impressive dives lasting two hours. However, this is not typical; it happens only when they are near predators, Spicer said. While whales triumph as the longest-diving mammals and endotherms, or warm-blooded animals, big ectotherms have registered the longest-lasting dives of any species. The freshwater crocodile (Crocodylus johnstoni) clocked up 402 minutes, or 6.7 hours, underwater when it perceived a threat near the water's surface. But the record holder is the loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta), with a winning dive of about 610 minutes, or 10.2 hours, according to a 2007 study, while other studies have recorded maximum dive durations of 480 minutes, or eight hours. RELATED MYSTERIES —Can fish and other marine animals drown? —How do animals breathe underwater? —Do fish get thirsty? These ectotherms have many of the same oxygen-saving adaptations as mammals, but they can also save energy by not needing to warm themselves. "Their running costs can be half of a similar sized marine mammal just because they don't use physiological means to keep themselves warm," Spicer said. "It is the effect of temperature on metabolism that makes the main difference. Leatherback turtles [Dermochelys coriacea] I know can dive deeper than most whale species. And in cold waters they can turn down their metabolism pretty dramatically … enough that they can lie on the sea bottom for hours, or rest in underwater caves," he added.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Regional students participate in University of Idaho's coding and robotics camp
Jun. 21—MOSCOW — It may not be a summer camp in the traditional sense, but the University of Idaho's summer Robotics Coding Camp is helping local students learn skills that can help them in the future. Regional middle and high school students spent a week on the Moscow campus learning about computer programming and engineering. The students typed and clicked away at their computers mastering skills many people don't learn until they are older. Erin Lanigan, UI assistant director of student engagement and STEM outreach, said one of the goals for the program is to help prepare students for entering the workforce where computer science and engineering skills are among the top needs. At this age, they are beginning to decide what they want to do when they grow up. "They have to see it to know they can be it," she said. Moscow Middle School student Corinne Bowersox, 12, already has a job in mind. "I'm actually interested in being a NASA engineer," she said. During this week's camp, she used coding to create her own video game where the goal is to catch fortune cookies and eggs before they hit the floor. She also learned how to control a small robot on wheels. She said coding is an easy way to learn a new hobby and people can share their work with other creators.
Forbes
4 hours ago
- Forbes
ESA's Solar Orbiter Should Solve Mystery Of Sun's Outermost Atmosphere
ESA's Solar Orbiter mission will face the Sun from within the orbit of Mercury at its closest ... More approach. The European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter mission recently stunned the world with the first-ever full images of our Sun's South pole, proving that this was going to be a mission like no other. Using an orbital gravity assist from the planet Venus, the Solar Orbiter mission spacecraft was able to maneuver into an orbit that has taken it to an angle 17 degrees below the Sun's equator. Over the coming years, the spacecraft will tilt its orbit even further, so the best views are yet to come, says ESA. The 1.2-billion-euro Solar Orbiter mission, with NASA participation, should finally help us understand the origin of the Sun's solar winds as well as our understanding of the Sun's poles. And arguably most importantly, it should solve the puzzle of why our star's outermost atmosphere, or corona, is heated to millions of degrees Kelvin and is thus so much hotter than the Sun's own surface. By contrast, our Sun's visible photosphere, or surface, averages only 5,500 degrees K. With Solar Orbiter, we are clearly seeing energy releases on the nano-flare scale, Daniel Mueller, a solar physicist and ESA project scientist for both ESA's SOHO and Solar Orbiter missions to the Sun, tells me in his office in The Netherlands. But the question is, would these nano-flares continue like that infinitely, or is there a certain lower limit to the production of these nano-flares, Mueller wonders. The puzzle is whether these nano-flares are enough to heat up the Sun's corona to the temperatures with which it is routinely measured. A Unique View Launched in 2020, from its highly elliptical orbit just inside Mercury's perihelion, the closest point in our innermost planet's solar orbit, the ESA spacecraft offers the best views yet of our own yellow dwarf star. We can see on scales down to about 200 kilometers on the Sun, which shows us a lot of dynamics of our star, says Mueller. And thanks to its newly tilted orbit around the Sun, the European Space Agency-led Solar Orbiter spacecraft is the first to image the Sun's poles from outside the ecliptic plane (the imaginary geometric plane in which our Earth orbits the Sun), says ESA. We observed the Sun's North pole at the end of this past April, says Mueller. But we passed the Southern pole first and then the Northern pole six weeks later, he says. At the moment, as seen from Earth, the Solar Orbiter is almost behind the Sun, so the data downlink has slowed to a trickle. But by early October, Mueller expects to have downloaded all the data from Solar Orbiter's Spring polar observations of the Sun. And within a matter of two to three months after the data is on the ground, the first scientific results will have been written up and submitted to journals for publication, says Mueller. These observations are also key to understanding the Sun's magnetic field and why it flips roughly every 11 years, coinciding with a peak in solar activity, says ESA. The spacecraft's instruments show that the Sun's South pole is a bit of a magnetic mess now, with both North and South polarity magnetic fields present, ESA notes. Ready To Flip Right now, there is not a clear dominant magnetic polarity, but a mix of the two, says Mueller. And that is exactly what you would expect to find during the maximum of the Sun's activity cycle, when the magnetic field is about to flip, he says. The real applications are for space weather predictions. Case in point, better space weather forecasting may have saved many of Elon Musk's 523 Starlink satellites that reentered Earth's atmosphere between 2020 and 2024. This period coincides with the rising phase of solar cycle 25, which has shown itself to be more intense than the previous solar cycle, the authors of a 2025 paper appearing in the journal Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences write. Our results indisputably show that satellites reenter faster with higher geomagnetic activity, the authors note. There was a big solar storm that caused the earth's upper Earth atmosphere to expand, so, the satellites experienced more drag, and therefore didn't make it to orbit, says Mueller. One option may have been simply to hold off on launches until this increased period of solar activity enabled a less risky geomagnetic environment in Earth's upper atmosphere. The hope is that the Solar Orbiter mission and other missions like it will lead to better and more reliable space weather predictions that could potentially save hundreds of millions of dollars in the commercial satellite industry. Solar Orbiter should do its share in solving both pure solar physics conundrums as well as in more practical applications like space weather. The good news is that the spacecraft still has plenty of fuel left. Our current funding goes until the end of 2026, but because we had a picture-perfect launch provided by United Launch Alliance and NASA, we saved a lot of fuel, says Mueller. So, the onboard fuel reserves are so large that we can keep going for a long time, he says.
