SolO probe (Solar Orbiter Mission)

WHY IN NEWS?

ESA and NASA launch Solar Orbiter on mission towards the sun.

ABOUT SoLO PROBE

• The Solar Orbiter (SolO), a space probe created to take the closest pictures of the sun that the world has ever seen, was launched from the Cape Canaveral base in Florida.
• The joint project, developed at Airbus defense compound, is being led by the European Space Agency (ESA), launching in conjunction with NASA, and has been identified by scientists as the United Kingdom's most important space mission of the generation.
• The structure itself, roughly the size of a big truck, accommodates 10 different instruments – designed to take images of the sun's surface, and gauge the atmosphere and magnetic field surrounding the star, among other tasks.
• SolO's main mission will be to measure and study the Sun's behavior – producing images unprecedented in detail – allowing scientists to correlate these findings into optimizing the technologies we use here on Earth.
• It is specifically designed to determine what causes the Sun's 11-year life cycle, alternating between times of fervid activity to times of tranquility – moving between a state of solar maximum to solar minimum and vice versa.
• SolO will also observe both the North and South poles of the sun, something scientists have never been able to see before - observing the solar winds constantly thrown off by the sun: the extended atmosphere of the G-type main-sequence star.

Prelims Question

Q. SolO probe (Solar Orbiter Mission) has been launched by:
a. ISRO
b. ESA
c. JAXA
d. Roscosmos

Answer to the Prelims Question