ESA chooses three scientific missions for further study
Dark energy, habitable planets around other stars, and the mysterious nature of our own Sun, have been chosen by ESA as candidates for two medium-class missions to be launched no earlier than 2017. On Thursday 18 February, ESAs Science Programme Committee (SPC) approved three missions to enter the so-called definition phase. This is the next step required before the final decision is taken as to which missions are implemented. The three proposals chosen to proceed are Euclid, PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars (PLATO), and Solar Orbiter. Read more
By approaching as close as 48 solar radii, Solar Orbiter will view the solar atmosphere with high spatial resolution and combine this with measurements made in-situ. Over the extended mission periods Solar Orbiter will deliver images and data that will cover the polar regions and the side of the Sun not visible from Earth.
For over 400 years, astronomers have studied the Sun from afar. Now, a team at European Space Agency, with backing from NASA, is planning to send two space missions to explore the brightest star. According to the ESA astronomers, the aim of the space missions is to get closer to the centre of the Sun, which will help in unravelling a long list of questions that exist about the star, including why its outer atmosphere is hotter than its surface, and what causes solar wind, sun spots and flares.