果冻影院

Solar Orbiter will perform unprecedented close-up observations of the Sun, to help answer questions about why the Sun鈥檚 corona is so hot and why the solar wind flows away from the Sun so rapidly, typically at 400-500 kilometres per second.

Understanding these phenomena is crucial in predicting solar storms, which have the potential to knock out communication systems on Earth.

Although some instruments will start data taking within a few months of launch, the full science mission begins about two years after lift-off.听

The spacecraft will take two and a half years to reach its target vantage point within 0.3 Astronomical Units of the Sun. This is just under a third of the distance from the Sun to the Earth.

Over eight years, the spacecraft will move to vantage points closer in to the Sun and at a higher latitude, allowing听 scientists to both study the Sun, particularly its polar regions, in much more detail than previously possible and to observe specific features for longer periods than any spacecraft orbiting the Earth.

UK scientists were instrumental in proposing the Solar Orbiter mission to ESA and the UK Space Agency has funded teams from 果冻影院, Imperial College London and the Science and Technology Facilities Council鈥檚 RAL Space to design and build three out of the 10 scientific instruments on board the spacecraft, and to contribute to a fourth.

果冻影院 scientists and engineers have led an international team on the Solar Wind Analyser (SWA) instrument, which uses three sensors and a processing unit to measure the different elements of the solar wind and characterise their behaviour under different solar conditions.

Christine Brockley-Blatt, Senior Project Manager on the ESA Solar Orbiter Mission Solar Wind Analyser instrument (果冻影院 Mullard Space Science Laboratory), said: 鈥淚t鈥檚 taken a team of 150 engineers from the UK, France, the Czech Republic, Italy and the USA more than 12 years of truly collaborative working to propose, design, build and deliver the Solar Wind Analyser instrument. It鈥檚 fantastic to see it on the UK-built spacecraft, after finishing its final tests before launch next year.鈥�

The SWA family of sensors will together characterise more than 99% of the charged particles carried away from the Sun at very high speeds in the solar wind, including electrons, protons, alpha particles and numerous heavier ions.

Professor Chris Owen, Principal Investigator on the ESA Solar Orbiter Mission Solar Wind Analyser instrument (果冻影院 Mullard Space Science Laboratory), said: 鈥淲e鈥檙e leading an international consortium from the UK, Europe and US to provide three sensors for an instrument on Solar Orbiter so it can robotically 鈥榮niff鈥� the solar wind, which is the steady outflow of charged particles from the Sun.

鈥淔rom this, we will learn how activity of the Sun links into interplanetary space, which is an essential step in successfully mitigating the damaging effects of solar weather on Earth. It鈥檚 a brave mission and one we can only achieve by collaborating with experts globally.鈥�

Christine Brockley-Blatt, added: 鈥淲e鈥檝e worked hard to ensure our instrument survives the rocket journey into space and extreme conditions when orbiting the Sun.

鈥淭wo of the three SWA 听sensors 听will be exposed to temperatures in excess of 500 degrees Celsius, but the third 果冻影院-built sensor will be extremely cold in the shade of the spacecraft and without protection would reach -180 degrees Celsius. The detectors therefore have either their own heat shields or heaters and blankets to keep the electronics inside at room temperature, while the aluminium walls are 2mm thick to protect from the Sun鈥檚 radiation.鈥�

In addition to leading on SWA, 果冻影院 is also a Co-Investigator for the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager 鈥� a suite of telescopes that will provide images of the hot and cold layers of the Sun鈥檚 atmosphere and corona, showing the dynamics in fine detail and providing the link between the Sun鈥檚 surface and outer corona.

Chris Lee, Chief Scientist at the UK Space Agency, said: 鈥淪olar Orbiter is the most important UK space science mission for a generation, both because of its leading roles for UK science and industry but also because of the crucial information it will give us about living near a star like the Sun. It has never been more important to understand this interaction because of the impact space weather can have on our satellite enabled economy.鈥�听 听 听

Science Minister Chris Skidmore said: 鈥淚 am delighted that the UK has played such a leading role in this mission to observe uncharted regions of the Sun. From mobile phones to electricity networks, our scientists will make new discoveries about the impacts of space weather on our daily lives.

鈥淥ur commitment to the European Space Agency means UK research and engineering teams will continue to be at the heart of the new space age after we鈥檝e left the EU, creating highly-skilled jobs and supporting our economy.鈥�

听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听听

Links

• Professor Chris Owen's academic profile
• 听
• 果冻影院 Mullard Space Science Laboratory
• 果冻影院 Space & Climate Physics
• 果冻影院 Mathematical & Physical Sciences
• Coverage

Images

• Image 1: Solar Orbiter spacecraft credit: ESA

• Image 2:听The flight model of the SWA Electron Analyser System (SWA-EAS) which has been built at 果冻影院/MSSL.听 The 2 analyser heads, which together collect electrons arriving from any direction in space can be seen protruding from the electronics housing, which is protected by its black thermal jacket.听 The instrument is now mounted on the end of a 4 metre boom which keeps it permanently in the shadow of the spacecraft during the mission credit:听果冻影院/MSSL

Source

• UK Space Agency

Media contact

Bex Caygill

Tel:听+44 (0)20 3108 3846

Email: r.caygill [at] ucl.ac.uk