Related papers: The Solar Orbiter mission -- Science overview
Solar and heliospheric cosmic rays provide a unique perspective in cosmic ray research: we can observe not only the particles, but also the properties of the plasmas in which the they are accelerated and propagate, using in situ and…
The Solar System Odyssey mission uses modern-day high-precision experimental techniques to test the laws of fundamental physics which determine dynamics in the solar system. It could lead to major discoveries by using demonstrated…
The High Inclination Solar Mission (HISM) is a concept for an out-of-the-ecliptic mission for observing the Sun and the heliosphere. The mission profile is largely based on the Solar Polar Imager concept: initially spiraling in to a 0.48 AU…
Solar Orbiter strives to unveil how the Sun controls and shapes the heliosphere and fills it with energetic particle radiation. To this end, its Energetic Particle Detector (EPD) has now been in operation, providing excellent data, for just…
Solar Orbiter conducted a series of flare-optimised observing campaigns in 2024 utilising the Major Flare Solar Orbiter Observing Plan (SOOP). Dedicated observations were performed during two distinct perihelia intervals in March/April and…
The magnetic fields and dynamical processes in the solar polar regions play a crucial role in the solar magnetic cycle and in supplying mass and energy to the fast solar wind, ultimately being vital in controlling solar activities and…
Ground-based solar observations provide key contextual data (i.e., the 'big picture') to produce a complete description of the only astrosphere we can study in situ: our Sun's heliosphere. The next decade will see the beginning of…
Solar Orbiter and the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) are two of the newest facilities available to the solar physics community. The first coordinated observations of the Sun by these two facilities occurred over the course of one…
The Spectral Imaging of the Coronal Environment (SPICE) instrument is a high-resolution imaging spectrometer operating at extreme ultraviolet (EUV) wavelengths. In this paper, we present the concept, design, and pre-launch performance of…
Radial gradients of cosmic rays are key parameters for understanding the transport of particles in space. Solar Orbiter, launched on 2020 February 10, approaches the Sun approximately every half year, with a closest perihelion distance of…
The ESA Euclid mission has been designed to map the geometry of the dark Universe. Scheduled for launch in 2020, it will conduct a six-years visible and NIR imaging and spectroscopic survey over 15,000 deg 2 down to mag~24.5. Although the…
The Earth's magnetosphere is formed as a consequence of interaction between the planet's magnetic field and the solar wind, a continuous plasma stream from the Sun. A number of different solar wind phenomena have been studied over the past…
The recent launches of Parker Solar Probe (PSP), Solar Orbiter (SO) and BepiColombo, along with several older spacecraft, have provided the opportunity to study the solar wind at multiple latitudes and distances from the Sun simultaneously.…
Solaris is a transformative Solar Polar Discovery-class mission concept to address crucial outstanding questions that can only be answered from a polar vantage. Solaris will image the Sun's poles from ~75 degree latitude, providing new…
Recently, we witnessed how the synergy of small satellite technology and solar sailing propulsion enables new missions. Together, small satellites with lightweight instruments and solar sails offer affordable access to deep regions of the…
This chapter of the Planetary Exploration Horizon 2061 Report reviews the way the six key questions about planetary systems, from their origins to the way they work and their habitability, identified in chapter 1, can be addressed by means…
The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) was launched in December 1995 with a suite of instruments designed to answer long-standing questions about the Sun's internal structure, its extensive outer atmosphere, and the solar wind. This…
Metis is the first solar coronagraph designed for a space mission capable of performing simultaneous imaging of the off-limb solar corona in both visible and UV light. The observations obtained with Metis aboard the Solar Orbiter ESA-NASA…
For the first time in human history, technologies have matured sufficiently to enable a mission capable of discovering and characterizing habitable planets like Earth orbiting sunlike stars other than the Sun. At the same time, such a…
We describe the scientific objectives and instrument design of the ASPIICS coronagraph launched aboard the Proba-3 mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) on 5 December 2024. Proba-3 consists of two spacecraft in a highly elliptical…