For the second time in its mission so far, the Sun-observing spacecraft Solar Orbiter has flown through the tail of a comet, generating a wealth of science data – helped by an early prediction of the event by a UCL PhD researcher.
Solar Orbiter is the first spacecraft to provide close-up views of the Sun’s polar regions, and addresses a central question of heliophysics: How does the Sun create and control the constantly changing space environment throughout the solar system?
Solar Orbiter, a European Space Agency (ESA) spacecraft carrying instruments proposed, designed and built at UCL, is returning to Earth for a flyby passing through clouds of space debris before starting its main science mission exploring the Sun.
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Scientists have long questioned why the bursts of hot gas from the Sun do not cool down as fast as expected, and have now used a supercomputer to find out.