The Miami Herald reported that the Solar Orbiter space probe “had a brief encounter with its home planet on Saturday morning when it circled the Earth for the first and last time while executing a gravity assist to slow itself down before setting off for the Sun.”
Full Story (Miami Herald)
Tag: Venus
Solar Orbiter Makes Closest Approach to Venus Yet
BBC News reported that the Solar Orbiter, a joint mission between NASA and the European Space Agency, made its closest approach to Venus on December 27, coming within 4,700 miles of Venus’ atmosphere. The Solar Orbiter “will use some of its tools to record the magnetic and particle environment around the planet.” The “next close approach of Venus is expected to be in August 2021.”
Full Story (BBC News)
Solar Orbiter to Take Closest-Ever Sun Photo
SPACE reports that Solar Orbiter “has snapped the closest images of the sun ever taken, revealing the finest details of our star’s outer atmosphere, the corona.” The images “were taken on March 7, when Solar Orbiter was exactly halfway between Earth and the sun, at a distance of 46 million miles (75 million kilometers) from both bodies.” On Saturday at 7:50 a.m. EDT, “the spacecraft will zoom past the sun at a distance of only 30 million miles (48.3 million km), about a third of the sun-Earth distance, ESA’s Solar Orbiter deputy project scientist Yannis Zouganelis told Space.com.”
Full Story (SPACE)