Scientists in the U.S. and Europe aren’t trying to capture extraterrestrial beings sitting around singing “Kumbaya.”
However, according to new reports today at CNet and elsewhere, a transatlantic team is looking at “campfires” on the surface of the sun with the Solar Orbiter, an unmanned vehicle that launched in February on a 10-year trip to observe our fiery life source.
The campfires in question are also called tiny solar flares or nanoflares, and are considered to be a series of small explosions as part of routine sun activity.
“The sun is what gives us life and supports us but it also poses dangers,” said ESA higher-up Günther Hasinger in a press statement. “To understand the sun is actually of vital importance for all of us.”
The Solar Orbiter project is a collaboration between NASA and the European space agency ESA, as well as the United Launch Alliance, which is connected to Boeing and Lockheed Martin, and the Airbus company. Solar Orbiter launched aboard an Atlas V rocket with a top speed of 27,000 miles an hour, as reported in February. It launched from Cape Canaveral, as Europe does not currently have its own active launch site ( France chooses to launch rockets from French Guiana,) although there is a planned Spaceport in development for the European continent.
Jackson Ryan’s CNet report shows some of the history behind the current project.
“The daring plot to cozy up to the solar system’s furnace comes 18 months after NASA launched a solar explorer all on its own: the Parker Solar Probe,” Ryan writes. “In December 2019, scientists and researchers working on the Parker mission released the first batch of results from Parker’s close approach to the sun. The data drop revealed interesting dynamics of the atomic particles and magnetic fields within the solar wind, but left sun scientists with even more mysteries to unravel.”
It’s interesting to see space projects in play that don’t involve Elon Musk’s SpaceX agency, which is now a household name for many Americans.
In the particular niche of space exploration within the broader tech sector, this news can be interesting for investors in firms like Boeing or SpaceX, or third party suppliers. Stay tuned.
