News and Events
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During Close Pass, Solar Orbiter Captures Venus’...
On Aug. 9, 2021, ESA/NASA’s Solar Orbiter spacecraft passed within 4,967 miles (7,995 kilometers) of the surface of planet Venus. In the days leading up to the approach, the Solar...
News SciencesAugust 12, 2021 -
Solar Orbiter images first coronal mass ejections
By happy coincidence, three of Solar Orbiter’s remote sensing instruments captured a pair of coronal mass ejections in the days after February’s close flyby of the Sun. CMEs are...
News SciencesMay 18, 2021 -
‘Campfires’ offer clue to solar heating mystery
Computer simulations show that the miniature solar flares nicknamed ‘campfires’, discovered last year by ESA’s Solar Orbiter, are likely driven by a process that may contribute...
News SciencesApril 27, 2021 -
Solar Orbiter snaps Venus, Earth and Mars
This recording was made on 18 November 2020 by the Heliospheric Imager (SoloHI) camera on board the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter spacecraft. It reveals three Solar System planets...
News SciencesJanuary 26, 2021 -
Solar Orbiter prepares for festive Venus flyby
Solar Orbiter is getting ready for the first of many gravity assist flybys of Venus on 27 December, to start bringing it closer to the Sun and tilting its orbit in order to...
News SciencesDecember 17, 2020 -
Solar Orbiter: turning pictures into physics
Solar Orbiter’s latest results show that the mission is making the first direct connections between events at the solar surface and what’s happening in interplanetary space around...
News SciencesDecember 10, 2020 -
Solar Orbiter makes first close approach to the...
ESA’s Sun-exploring mission Solar Orbiter has made its first close approach to the star on June 15, getting as close as 77 million kilometres to its surface, about half the...
News SciencesJune 15, 2020 -
Solar Orbiter to pass through the tails of Comet...
ESA’s Solar Orbiter will cross through the tails of Comet ATLAS during the next few days. Although the recently launched spacecraft was not due to be taking science data at this...
News SciencesMay 29, 2020 -
ESA scales down science mission operations amid...
In response to the escalating coronavirus pandemic, ESA has decided to further reduce on-site personnel at its mission control centre in Darmstadt, Germany.
News SciencesMarch 24, 2020 -
First Solar Orbiter instrument sends measurements
First measurements by a Solar Orbiter science instrument reached the ground on Thursday 13 February providing a confirmation to the international science teams that the...
News SciencesFebruary 17, 2020 -
Flying solo
Solar Orbiter will orbit our nearest star, the Sun, observing it up close. It will take the first-ever direct images of its poles, while also studying the inner heliosphere – the...
News SciencesFebruary 3, 2020 -
System validation tests for Solar Orbiter
System validation tests are currently held by the Solar Orbiter mission control team in Germany. It will be launched in February 2020.
News SciencesApril 8, 2019 -
3 Solar Orbiter components delivered in the...
3 parts of the upcoming Solar Orbiter satellite were delivered in the United Kingdom, pending tests before it launches towards the Sun in 2019
News SciencesAugust 22, 2017 -
Solar Orbiter antennae undergoing testing
ESA’s Solar Orbiter satellite is designed to study the Sun from only 42 million km away, or 60 solar radii, the closest observation ever achieved. CNES is supervising testing on 3...
News SciencesJune 21, 2017 -
Selection of Cosmic Vision M1 and M2: France on...
CNES is highly involved in the conception of the two missions Solar Orbiter and Euclid, now selected by ESA within the frame of its Cosmic Vision programme. Thanks to its...
News Sciences Science and technologyOctober 4, 2011 -
First call for Cosmic Vision missions: the French...
A review of the French participations for payloads on medium-sized missions M1 and M2 within the ESA's Cosmic Vision programme took place in CNES in March 25th-26th, 2010.
News Sciences Science and technologySeptember 29, 2011
