![]() While particles like these, and some ionised atoms such as Helium, are regularly spat out from the Sun, they can hitch a ride on plasma eruptions which will take them further into space. The CME struck ESA’s Solar Orbiter spacecraft as it performed a flyby of Venus. ![]() The large coronal mass ejection (CME) was recorded by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) on 30 August 2022. Launched in 2020, Solar Orbiter’s job is to observe and monitor the sun’s activities – events like CMEs – and its instrumentation has obtained data that describes environmental changes around Venus after the ejection took place. Solar Orbiter’s CME encounter has sent back some useful data. ![]() When it returns to the Sun, the spacecraft’s closest approach will be about 4.5 million km closer than its last pass. “The close approach went exactly to plan, thanks to a great deal of planning from our colleagues in Flight Dynamics and the diligent care of the Flight Control Team”, explains Jose-Luis Pellon-Bailon, Solar Orbiter Operations Manager. Passing six thousand kilometres from Venus’ surface, the ship will use the planet’s gravity to alter its orbit to complete its next solar pass. Solar Orbiter is designed to withstand and monitor CMEs and has continued to along its journey since. They can cause auroras and electromagnetic damage if they extend far enough to reach Earth. On Sunday morning (UTC), Solar Orbiter had a close encounter with an eruption known as a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) which burst from the Sun towards Venus and the ship.ĬMEs are huge clouds of plasma and magnetic fields that erupt from the Sun’s corona. No craft has gone closer to the sun to achieve this. Solar Orbiter is undertaking close-up studies of the Sun and the inner heliosphere – those parts of the solar system closest to our local yellow dwarf star – and will obtain imagery and data on the sun’s solar wind, magnetic field, and material eruptions. The European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter has been hit by a massive solar plasma eruption as it transited towards Venus.
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