A BOLD SPACECRAFT REVEALS SOURCE OF THE SUN'S MYSTERIOUS WIND

"What weareobserving... could actually be a substantial source of the solar wind," says Lakshmi Pradeep Chitta, a solar physicistatthe Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Gottingen, Germany. The scientists used the European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter spacecraft to spot...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature (London) 2023-08, Vol.620 (7976), p.933-933
Main Author: Witze, Alexandra
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Charged particles
Elliptical orbits
Magnetic fields
Mercury
Mercury (planet)
Solar Orbiter (ESA)
Solar orbits
Solar system
Solar system research
Solar wind
Spacecraft
Sun
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Summary:"What weareobserving... could actually be a substantial source of the solar wind," says Lakshmi Pradeep Chitta, a solar physicistatthe Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Gottingen, Germany. The scientists used the European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter spacecraft to spot the newfound jets issuing from the Sun's atmosphere. The researchers were able to spot thejets for the first time because Solar Orbiter was flying so close to the Sun - just 45 million kilometres away, closer than the orbit of Mercury. Since the spacecraft's launch in 2020, it has been traveling in an elliptical orbit around the Sun that takes it on close passes twice a year.
ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/d41586-023-02668-5