/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-infobae.s3.amazonaws.com/public/ORPCMRKL2BHOXPUBY2DP3NMAIM.jpg?fit=%2C&ssl=1 "They launched a probe that will seek to reveal the influence of the Sun on space weather")
The European-American Solar Orbiter mission was launched on Sunday night from Florida with the mission of deepening knowledge about the Sun and how it determines the space climate that affects telecommunications on Earth.
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The probe of the European Space Agency (ESA), in collaboration with NASA, departed from Cape Canaveral in Florida at 23H03 local (04H03 GMT on Monday). “Everything is going well”he said to the AFP the head of scientific operations of the probe, Jane Lafort.
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“The two solar panels, needed to charge the batteries, were deployed approximately 75 minutes after takeoff” while “the satellite is beginning to navigate,” he added.
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After passing through the orbits of Venus and Mercury, the satellite, whose maximum speed will be 245,000 km / h, it can approach up to 42 million km from the Sun, that is, less than a third of the distance that separates it from Earth.
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Scientists say the device should offer an unprecedented approach to the Sun’s atmosphere, its winds and its magnetic fields. In addition, it will provide the first images of the poles of our star, of which only the equatorial regions are currently known.
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“Suddenly it really feels like we are connected to the entire solar system,” said Daniel Muller, ESA project scientist, shortly after launch. “We are here on Earth launching something that will approach the Sun.”
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“We have a common goal and it is to do good science with this mission. I think we will achieve it”Added Holly Gilbert, director of the division of heliophysical science at NASA.
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Ten state-of-the-art instruments on board the probe will record countless observations to help scientists unveil how winds and solar eruptions work.
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Sometimes solar winds are disturbed by eruptions that eject charged particles that propagate in space.
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These storms, which are difficult to predict, have a direct impact on Earth: when they strike the magnetosphere they cause at least the beautiful and harmless polar auroras. But the impact can also be more dangerous.
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The largest known solar storm is the “Carrington event” of 1859: It destroyed the network of telegraphs in the United States, provided electric shocks to various agents, burned paper at the stations and the northern lights were visible in unprecedented latitudes, to Central America.
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“Society is increasingly dependent on what happens in space, and therefore we are more dependent on what the Sun does,” said Etienne Pariat, of the CNRS observatory in Paris.
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“Imagine that only half of our satellites were destroyed,” added Matthieu Berthomier, another French researcher. “It would be disastrous for humanity.”
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The probe is protected by a titanium thermal shield because the temperatures to which it will be exposed will reach 500 ° C. Its heat-resistant structure is covered by a thin black layer of calcium phosphate, a kind of dust similar to the pigments used in prehistoric paintings found in caves.
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The shield will protect the instruments from extreme radiation emitted by solar explosions. All but one of the telescopes will go through holes in the thermal shield that open and close in a coordinated dance, while other instruments will work in the shadow behind the shield.
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As with those on Earth, solar poles are quite different extreme regions from the rest of their surface. Every 11 years the solar poles change: the north becomes the south and vice versa. Just before this happens, solar activity increases, sending powerful bursts of solar material into space.
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Solar Orbiter will observe the surface while exploring and recording the material when it passes by the space apparatus. The only device that previously flew over the solar poles was the Ulysses, another joint ESA / NASA initiative launched in 1990. But he didn’t get closer to the Sun than the Earth is.
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“You can’t get much closer than the Solar Orbiter will do and still see the Sun,” Muller said.
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The mission will be controlled from Darmstadt, Germany. After the launch, the team will conduct three months of tests to ensure that the systems work well before turning on the instruments on site.
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The instruments will be newly activated in the Solar Orbiter in its first approach to the Sun, in November 2021. It will work in conjunction with the NASA Parker solar probe, launched in 2018, but will travel much closer to the Sun, entering the internal atmosphere from the star to see how energy flows in its crown.
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