Gerry Palmers Science 09.05.2022 21:Sep PM EDT

Sun’s Massive Coronal Mass Ejection Slams Venus-Bound Solar Orbiter Spacecraft

A plasma blast of enormous proportions from the sun threatened the European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter as it began its key flyby of Venus.

The sun unleashed a massive coronal mass ejection (CME), an explosion of charged particles from the sun's corona or upper atmosphere on Tuesday, August 30, that had been in the direction of Venus. After this burst, the Solar Orbiter was hit by a bubble of solar material as it began its pivotal orbital flyby of the second nearest planet to the sun in the Solar System.

The Solar Orbiter has ten science instruments to analyze the sun's surface and gather data on CMEs, the solar wind, and the sun's magnetic field. A good number of these instruments were shut down as the Solar Orbiter approached Venus due to the possible risk of sunlight reflecting off Venus' atmosphere, the ESA said in a statement.

Solar Orbiter Captures Valuable Data As It is Hit by Coronal Mass Ejection

Solar Orbiter, however, was able to gather some important measurements of its environment as it encountered the CME, which showed a rise in energetic solar particles. Intense solar events cause particles, including protons, electrons, and helium atoms ejected from the sun and sped up to close to relativistic speeds. These particles pose a radiation risk to astronauts and could damage spacecraft. Understanding the particles' movements and behavior in space would be valuable in safeguarding life and technology both on Earth and in outer space.

The spacecraft would subsequently make a successful close approach to Venus at 01:26 GMT on Sunday, Sept. 4 (9:26 p.m. EDT Saturday, Sept. 3).

Despite Hit, Solar Orbiter Makes Successful Venus Flyby

The close approach went "exactly to plan," and this was due to "a great deal of planning from our colleagues in Flight Dynamics and the diligent care of the Flight Control Team," Jose-Luis Pellon-Bailon, Solar Orbiter Operations Manager, was quoted in the ESA statement.

The close approach was primarily planned to let the Solar Orbiter alter its orbit to bring it closer to the sun. During the flyby, however, the probe also made observations of Venus's strange magnetic field.

Solar Orbiter was launched in 2020 and is two-and-a-half years into its ten-year-long mission to capture images of the sun from the closest distance ever and analyze the properties of the sun's magnetic field. The spacecraft utilizes Venus's gravity to change and tilt its orbit off the ecliptic plane, wherein the planets orbit. These Venus flybys are set to enable the Solar Orbiter to do unprecedented observations of the sun's unexplored poles, which are important to making the sun's 11-year cycle of activity possible, the ebb and flow in the generation of sunspots, flares, and eruptions that impact space weather around Earth.

The mission team aims to bring the Orbiter to as high as 33 degrees to achieve more direct views of the sun. Launched in February 2020, the Orbiter seeks to likewise answer questions like what heats up the sun's corona to millions of degrees Celsius, what causes the generation of the solar wind and how the solar winds get to speeds of hundreds of kilometers per second.