Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio, Hey brain Stuff Lauren Vogelbaum. Here. A newly launched spacecraft promises to broaden our understanding of the Sun. Called Solar Orbiter, or the Solo for short, it left Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in central Florida on Sunday, February nine at three pm. The new probe is part of an international collaboration between NASA and the European Space Agency or e s A.
Both parties contributed to its arsenal of scientific instruments. Some of these gadgets will remotely image the Sun, its atmosphere and the materials its views. Fourth others are built to keep tabs on the spacecraft's immediate surroundings. During the wee hours of February, the European Space Operations Center in Darmstadt, Germany got a signal confirming the orbiters onboard solar panels were functioning correctly. So begins a seven year planned mission.
The orbiter is supposed to take to Paraphry Robert Frost, the route less traveled. You see, all the planets in our solar system revolve around the Sun on the same general plane, give or take a few degrees, called the ecliptic plane. It's like a giant invisible disc, one that very nearly lines up with Sun's equator. Most of our space bearing devices are gravitationally confined to this plane, but the Solo is meant to escape it by exploiting the gravity of Earth and Venus. The pro will orbit the
Sun on a unique and tilted pathway. This unique trajectory will give the solo twenty two close approaches to the Sun as close as twenty six million miles or thirty five million kilometers, as well is bring it within the orbit of Mercury to study the Sun's influence on space. It will also give the Solo the chance to do something no craft has ever done before, take pictures of the solar poles looking down from above or up from below. Just like Earth, the Sun has a north and south pole.
In twenty eighteen, the e s A used data from the Probe but two satellite to try to determine what the northern pole looks like, but Proba two couldn't photograph this region directly. If all goes according to plan, the Solo will do just that. It's first close passed by the Sun will be in twenty two at about a third the distance from the Sun to Earth. And that's just the beginning. Another mission involves the Solo partnering up
with the Parker Solar Probe, launched in twenty eighteen. The spacecraft is able to fly much closer to the Sun than the solo, ever will Comparing the feedback from both probes ought to tell us a great deal about the mysterious phenomenon called solar wind which are streams of charged particles. Any polar pictures that the Solo gives us should provide relevant insights too. The Sun's polar regions probably have a big effect on its atmosphere as a whole, along with
the winds it unleashes. The solo's unique travel plans will put it in contact with intense heat and extreme cold. The probe is going to revolve around the Sun in a very long, very narrow, oval shaped orbit. As it nears the star, things will get rather toasty, and that's why designers fitted the solar orbiter with a reflective heat shield coated in titanium foil. According to NASA, this shield can withstand temperatures as high as nine hundred and seventy
degrees fahrenheit or five and twenty degrees celsius. It's also got radiators designed to ventilate excess heat produced within the craft itself. But of course scientists aren't just interested in the solar poles. One of NASA's upcoming Artemis lunar missions is supposed to land the first astronaut at the Moon's southern pole. None of the Apollo Ara moonwalkers ever made it that far below the equator. Today's episode was written
by Mark Mancini and produced by Tyler Clang. For more Onless and lots of other far reaching topics, visit how stuffworks dot com. Brain Stuff is production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. H