NASA / ESA Solar Orbiter just hit a major mission milestone – BGR

• The joint mission between NASA and the European Space Agency to launch a solar probe to the sun had just reached an important milestone.
• The probe passed Venus over the weekend, making its way closest to the planet at a distance of about 4,700 miles.
• The researcher’s main purpose is to study the Sun, but he has been able to gather some data about Venus as it passed through the planet.

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The sun at the center of our solar system is very important. You may not give a second thought to its rays of life as you go about your daily life, but there are scientists who think about it. It is important to understand what makes the Sun tick, so to speak, and the dangers it may pose to Earth, which is why NASA has launched several missions to study the star in recent years.

The new Solar Orbiter, a joint mission between the European Space Agency and NASA, hopes to uncover some of the Sun ‘s mysteries, but first, it needs to get there. In a new update from the ESA, we are told that the orbiter has just passed Venus on its way to the sun, hitting a huge milestone on its journey while doing some science at the same time.

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The mission of the Solar Orbiter is, as you might expect, almost entirely focused on the Sun itself. The spacecraft is built to take measurements and readings while also capturing images of the Sun from a distance we could not have achieved before. It’s a very important mission, but since the probe is just traveling through space on its way to the Sun, and it has passed pretty close to Venus, its handlers decided to see what the kind of information he could gather about the planet as it passed through.

“Solar Orbiter is indeed a mission not specifically designed to capture Venus’ ideas, ”Daniel Müller of ESA told reporters recently. “We’re always looking for bonus opportunities to do science, so yes, we’ll be looking when we come to Venus.”

And so, as the orbiter passed by Venus he collected as much data as he could. That information came in the form of readings related to plasma waves, radio signals, and observations of how the solar wind – the rapid outflow of grains from the Sun that affects nearby planets, including Earth – interacting with Venus. These data will help inform further research and, when combined with the wealth of data that the orbiter is expected to collect about the Sun, could improve space weather forecasts here on Earth. Earth and will help us to better understand the amazing relationship that the Sun has with all of the planets around it.

The only thing the orbiter did not do when flying snap pictures of the planet. That’s a bummer, as it would have been cool to see some new, intimate photos of Venus, but since the mission is focused on a laser on the Sun, let’s slip it.