📷 Image Credits: India Today
Solar Orbiter, launched by the European Solar Agency, has achieved a significant milestone by directly connecting the solar wind around the spacecraft to specific areas on the Sun’s surface. This breakthrough allows scientists to study the origins of the solar wind in unprecedented detail. The solar wind, a continuous stream of charged particles flowing outward from the Sun, has always been of interest to solar physicists. However, tracing its origins and understanding its properties has been challenging due to the loss of detail by the time it reaches Earth.
The Solar Orbiter mission aimed to bridge this gap by linking the solar wind measured in situ by the spacecraft to specific areas on the Sun’s surface imaged by its remote sensing instruments. Using the Magnetic Connectivity Tool, the team predicted when the spacecraft would encounter solar wind streams from target surface features like coronal holes or active regions. During its approach to the Sun in March 2022, Solar Orbiter detected variations in wind speed, composition, and temperature linked to these areas.
The findings confirmed that different solar source regions leave “footprints” in the solar wind, allowing scientists to trace it back to its origins on the Sun’s surface. This achievement is a significant step towards unraveling the mysteries of the solar wind, which is crucial for understanding space weather and its impact on Earth and spacecraft. The ability to connect solar wind measurements to the Sun’s surface from close range opens up new possibilities for future studies and collaborations with other spacecraft to map the solar wind’s origins comprehensively.
Solar Orbiter’s success in tracing the solar wind back to its source regions marks a pioneering advancement in solar science and space exploration. By combining data from multiple spacecraft like NASA’s Parker Solar Probe and ESA’s BepiColombo, scientists now have a powerful tool to delve deeper into the origins and physics of the solar wind.
