CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Europe and NASA’s Solar Orbiter rocketed into space Sunday night on an unprecedented mission to capture the first pictures of the sun’s elusive poles. Solar Orbiter was made in Europe, along with nine science instruments. YOU MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN...At its closest approach, Solar Orbiter will come within 26 million miles (42 million kilometres) of the sun, well within the orbit of Mercury. The sun’s poles are pockmarked with dark, constantly shifting coronal holes. It took until now, however, for technology to allow elaborate spacecraft like Parker and Solar Orbiter to get close without being fried.

Source: thestar February 10, 2020 04:14 UTC