Solar Orbiter Stories

An animation shows a white cloud of material billowing away from the Sun (which is covered by a black disk at the center) toward the left side of the image, set against a red background with a couple dozen stars. The top says "STEREO Ahead COR2" and the bottom shows the date 2021-04-17 with the time progressing from 12:23:30 to 23:53:30.

Multiple Spacecraft Tell the Story of One Giant Solar Storm

5 min read

April 17, 2021, was a day like any other day on the Sun, until a brilliant flash erupted and an enormous cloud of solar material billowed away from our star. Such outbursts from the Sun are not unusual, but this…

Article2 months ago

A New Space Instrument Captures Its First Solar Eruption

3 min read

For new Sun-watching spacecraft, the first solar eruption is always special. On February 12, 2021, a little more than a year from its launch, the European Space Agency and NASA’s Solar Orbiter caught sight of this coronal mass ejection, or…

Article3 years ago

Unique Solar System Views from NASA Sun-Studying Missions

3 min read

Update, Jan. 28, 2021: A closer look by the Solar Orbiter team — prompted by sharp-eyed citizen scientists — revealed that a fourth planet, Uranus, is also visible in Solar Orbiter’s images from Nov. 18, 2020. Original story, Jan. 26,…

Article3 years ago