The scientific instruments will be protected by a heat shield that can withstand temperatures up to 500 degree celsius. This could help us understand the reasons behind the 11-year cycle of sunspots and solar wind.” It’s crucial to measure the pulsations of the sun from the poles in order to understand how the powerful magnetic field around our parent star is created. “This will allow us to do complete helioseismology.

In the second stage, after using a gravity assist slingshot from Venus, the spacecraft will leave its orbital ecliptic plane and orbit around the solar poles.

In the first stage, the cameras will take pictures of the corona in multiple wavelengths while the in-situ instruments will take measurements of the solar wind as it hits the spacecraft. The mission will be executed in two stages. Solar flares can potentially damage satellites in the Earth's orbit as well as disrupt telecommunication networks and power grids. The probe will also throw light on the mechanism of solar flares which are produced due to a sudden release of magnetic energy in the corona that can cause large coronal mass ejections blowing up to 2000 km/s. We still don’t know why the solar atmosphere is hotter than its surface,” Maksimovic said. “The temperature of the corona is about 1 million degrees celsius while the solar surface is relatively much cooler at 5500 degree celsius. Maksimovic contends that the information gathered from these instruments could help us solve one of the most challenging problems related to the sun that has baffled scientists for long. In total, six of the ten instruments on the spacecraft are remote sensing devices that will click images of the sun while the remaining four are in-situ instruments that will take measurements of solar plasma. The RPW measurements could provide us with some definite clues.” But we don’t know for certain which waves heat the corona. “There are many theories related to the heating of the corona. Maksimovic remarked these measurements could reveal the mechanism by which the corona and solar wind are heated. Named the Radio and Plasma Waves (RPW) instrument, it will measure the magnetic and electric fields in the vicinity of the probe. Maksimovic heads a team that will handle a scientific instrument on the spacecraft.

It was a moving experience for me because I have been involved in the project for 18 years,” Maksimovic told RFI, who is a senior scientist at CNRS and the Laboratory for Space Studies and Instrumentation in Astrophysics (LESIA). The moon was above us and the rocket trajectory was perfect. In-situ measurement as the satellite flies close to the Sun in a solar orbitįull solar disk, sampling at 0.“It was a great sight. This will facilitate detailed studies into the way the Sun’s magnetic field links into space and evolves over the solar cycle how particles are accelerated and propagate around the Solar System, including to the Earth how the corona and solar wind are heated and acceleratedĪssemblage of two digital fluxgate sensors operated in the dual-magnetometer mode (both in shadow and mounted on the instrument boom behind the spacecraft body). To provide in-situ measurements of the heliospheric magnetic field with high precision.

His solar orbiter