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10 February 2020
In operation
In and out of the ecliptic plane
Heliophysics observatory
Solar Orbiter is the world’s first mission to capture images of the Sun’s polar regions, which are key to understanding the Sun’s 11-year activity cycle. To do so, the spacecraft must gradually tilt its orbit out of the ecliptic plane. This change in orbit is made possible through a series of Venus gravity assists, raising the inclination up to 33° by 2029.
Solar Orbiter’s suite of instruments are taking invaluable measurements from the Sun’s interior all the way through its hot corona, and into the solar wind. The comprehensive data enables scientists to study the dynamics between what happens on the Sun’s surface and the space weather that occurs out in space and around Earth. Understanding and predicting space weather is vital to safeguarding us, our astronauts and our infrastructures.
Coronal moss, spicules, eruptions and rain recorded by the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) instrument of Solar Orbiter on 27 September 2023. Credit: ESA & NASA/Solar Orbiter/EUI Team
We want to uncover how the Sun works by addressing key questions about its behaviour and how it affects life on Earth:
Investigate solar wind generation:
How does solar wind form, and what accelerates it to speeds of hundreds of kilometres per second?
Study the Sun's corona:
What heats up the upper layer of the Sun’s atmosphere, the corona, to millions of degrees Celsius?
Analyse the solar magnetic field:
What drives the Sun’s 11-year cycle of rising and subsiding magnetic activity?
Explore the impact on Earth:
How is the Sun’s activity affecting our planet?
The spacecraft combines in situ and remote-sensing observations. In situ instruments are used alongside remote-sensing instruments close to the Sun to relate measurements taken throughout the mission back to their source regions and structures on the Sun's surface. It will operate both in and out of the ecliptic plane. Solar Orbiter will measure solar wind plasma, fields, waves, and energetic particles close enough to the Sun to ensure that they are still relatively pristine.
Credit: ESA/ATG medialab (spacecraft); NASA (background image, in situ instruments); Solar Orbiter/EUI Team/ESA & NASA (background image, remote-sensing instruments). Instruments list: in situ – Energetic Particle Detector (EPD), Magnetometer (MAG), Radio and Plasma Waves (RPW), Solar Wind Analyser (SWA); remote-sensing – Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI), Coronagraph (Metis), Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager (PHI), Heliospheric Imager (SoloHI), Spectral Imaging of the Coronal Environment (SPICE), X-ray Spectrometer/Telescope (STIX).
Solar Orbiter is collecting data from the Sun every day. This data is constantly downlinked to Earth and received by our scientific community who analyses and processes it to create stunning images and videos.
Solar Orbiter follows in the path of Ulysses and SOHO, which transformed our view of the Sun and heliosphere. With its unique set of instruments to link surface activity with solar wind and space weather, Solar Orbiter takes those discoveries further, collecting the first-ever images of the Sun’s poles.
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11 March 2025
Solar Orbiter is a space mission of international collaboration between ESA and NASA. The mission's scientific payload was developed by consortia of European research institutions, with contributions from the United States. ESA selected Airbus as prime contractor for the construction of the satellite. NASA provided the launcher and contributed instruments to the scientific payload in the context of the ‘International Living With a Star’ initiative.
Solar Orbiter launched in February 2020 – just weeks before the world shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The timing turned out to be scientifically perfect, with a favourable planetary alignment allowing the fastest possible route to the mission’s science phase. But back on Earth, the teams faced an entirely different kind of challenge. The mission control centre at ESOC had to temporarily shut down, placing Solar Orbiter into safe mode. Engineering activities planned to happen on site with all ten instrument teams were suddenly moved online, forcing a rapid rewrite of procedures. So when the spacecraft and its instruments were all confirmed to be working smoothly soon after, it came as a huge relief, and a proud moment for everyone involved.
Sonification of solar fireworks. Credit: ESA & NASA/Solar Orbiter/EUI & STIX, Klaus Nielsen (DTU Space/Maple Pools)
This video combines ultraviolet images of the Sun's outer atmosphere (the corona, yellow) taken by Solar Orbiter's Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) instrument, with the size and locations of solar flares (blue circles) as recorded by the Spectrometer/Telescope for Imaging X-rays (STIX) instrument. The accompanying audio is a sonification based on the detected flares and the spacecraft's distance to the Sun.
See and hear for yourself how the number of flares and their intensity increase, a clear sign of the Sun approaching the peak of the 11-year solar cycle.
Explore a subset of the ESA Science Programme missions here. Additional mission pages are in progress.
The currently available mission pages are ESA's flagship missions launched from 2013 and to be launched (L-class), and the ones in development (M- and F-class).
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