Solar Orbiter blasts off to unlock mysteries of the Sun

A new space probe, the Solar Orbiter, built by NASA and the European Space Agency set off on a journey to the sun on Sunday to take the first close-up look at the star’s polar regions, a mission expected to yield insight into how solar radiant energy affects Earth.

The Solar Orbiter spacecraft lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 11:03 p.m. ET (0403 GMT Monday), kicking off a 10-year voyage. Nearly 1,000 scientists and engineers from Europe joined their US colleagues to watch the United Launch Alliance's Atlas V rocket set off on its £1.3bn mission.

Solar Orbiter’s primary mission of examining the sun’s polar regions will help researchers understand how the sun's magnetic field is generated, the origins of solar flares and solar wind, and how they affect satellites and electronics on Earth. Learning how to predict them could help protect important infrastructure. The mission is also expected to glean insight into how astronauts can be protected from radiation in space, which can damage DNA.

The minivan-sized spacecraft will deploy solar panels and antennas before carrying on toward the sun, a trek assisted by the gravitational forces of Earth and Venus. It will take two years to reach the Sun before circling it 22 times, sending back high-resolution photos and measuring solar wind.

The Solar Orbiter will be 26 million miles away from the sun’s surface at its closest approach every five months, closer than the planet Mercury, or about 72 percent of the distance between the star and Earth.

Solar Orbiter carries 10 instruments, three of which will peer through tiny windows to survey how the sun’s surface changes over time. The instruments are packed behind a massive 324-pound (147 kg) heat shield, tested to withstand 500C temperatures - hot enough to melt lead.

NASA's Parker Solar Probe is already in the area, having been launched 1.5 years ago but, while Parker Solar Probe has come closer to the sun - 11.6 million miles - it is not flying near the poles, which is where the Solar Orbiter comes in.

At the end of the mission, which is expected to take 11 years, the Solar Orbiter will run out of fuel and power and communication with it will be lost. After that, the spacecraft will become a piece of space junk and will continue to orbit the Sun somewhere between Mercury and Venus.

Below, a short animation showing the trajectory of the Solar Orbiter over the next decade, along with fly-by dates of Venus.

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SOURCES (REUTERS, SKY NEWS, BBC, ESA)