Gerry Palmers Science 03.09.2022 20:Mar PM EST

ESA's Solar Orbiter To Make Its Closest Approach to the Sun This Month

Here's the best chance to finally unravel the mysterious behavior of the Sun.

European Space Agency's (ESA) Solar Orbiter is set to make its closest approach to the Sun this month, nearly two years after the same spacecraft made another close flyby, capturing never-before-determined phenomena on the solar system's star. This includes those miniature solar flares called campfires.

When those pictures were captured, Solar Orbiter was at about 48 million miles (77 million kilometers) or around the half-way point between the Earth and the Sun. This new approach later this March will be closer than ever at 30 million miles (48 million kilometers).

Solar Orbiter 'Entering the Unknown' in Observations of the Sun

Daniel Müller, ESA Solar Orbiter project scientist, noted in a statement that the mission was "entering the unknown" in its observations of the Sun.

Solar Orbiter will again make an unprecedented look at the Sun since its record-breaking snaps in 2020. A key observation expected is determining if those dynamic features related to campfires can reach solar winds, World Radiation Centre of the Physical Meteorogical Observatory director Louise Harra further said in the ESA statement. Harra, who is also one of the mission's principal investigators, indicated that these dynamic features are "so many."

These can impact the Earth, since solar winds, which are a continuing stream of particles that originate from the Sun, cause geomagnetic storms that can damage electrical grids or take satellites out of commission.

Mission Seeks to Explain Mystery of Solar Winds

Scientists are seeking insight on campfires' ability to release energy into space, as this would pinpoint the reasons why the corona, or the Sun's outer atmosphere, is so hot. The Sun's corona is even hotter than the solar surface, having a temperature of more than 1.7 million degrees Fahrenheit or 1 million degrees Celsius. The Sun's surface is about 9,900 degrees F (5,500 degrees C) in temperature. Such a disparity is really a mystery, since materials normally gets colder when it goes farther away from the source of heat.

Understanding these phenomena would affect not merely the Sun's immediate surroundings, but the solar system, as well. The spacecraft utilizes an array of scientific instruments that take observe and measure the Sun and the orbiter's surroundings.

The Solar Orbiter will reach its closest distance to the Sun on March 26. It will spend a total of three weeks in closer proximity to the Sun than the orbit of Mercury, the planet nearest to the star.

As it gets nearer to the Sun and starts taking pictures, the Solar Orbiter will be assisted by Japan's Hinode, NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectograph (IRIS) and ESA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory in monitoring space weather effects. The orbiter, for its part, will be seeking the source of these phenomena.

The ESA Solar Orbiter is set to get up to 26 million miles (42 million kilometers) to the Sun's surface in future approaches. In another unprecedented move later in the mission, scientists will tilt the spacecraft's orbit out of the ecliptic plane, wherein planets orbit, to let its cameras zoom directly at the Sun's poles.