Published July 13, 2021 at 12.13
Domestic. Swedish researchers at the Institute of Space Physics (IRF) now present for the first time research results from the space probe Solar Orbiter, which closely studies the sun and its flow of charged particles, the solar wind.
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The European Space Agency ESA and the US space agency Nasa launched the Solar Orbiter in February 2020. In June last year, the space probe approached the sun for the first time 700 million kilometers away from its surface, which is about half the distance between the sun and the earth.
The Swedish IRF has built parts for the measuring instrument Radio and Plasma Waves (RPW) to measure electric and magnetic fields in the solar wind.
– We received very beautiful data of excellent quality from the first unique measurements last year and now we look forward to measuring even closer to the sun, says Yuri Khotyaintsev, associate professor at IRF's Uppsala office and responsible for the institute's participation in Solar Orbiter.
From Mercury's orbits 2022 and 2025, the Solar Orbiter will orbit the orbit around the sun, which enables analyzes of the sun's poles.
– We can not do that with other spacecraft or telescopes from Earth. All measurements at different distances to the sun enable us scientists to better understand our nearest star and how it interacts with the space around it, including its effect on the earth, says Yuri Khotyaintsev in a mailing.
IRF researchers have been able to characterize the density and speed of the solar wind, as well as wave phenomena that affect the heating of the solar wind plasma.
Charged particles constantly flow at high speeds from the sun and the solar wind fills the solar system and creates space weather that can affect the earth. One of the overall goals of Solar Orbiter is to gain an increased knowledge of our nearest star and how it affects space and the environment around the earth.
The results have been published in a special issue on the space probe in the journal Astronomy & amp; Astrophysics.