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FROM THE EDITOR
Launched early this year, the
European Space Agency probe
called Solar Orbiter is on a seven-
year mission to study our home star in unprec-
edented ways. In a huge, elliptical orbit, Solar
Orbiter will swing out via gravity assists from
Earth and Venus to a wide berth that carries it
between 26 million and 85 million miles from
the Sun. The mission’s first three and a half
years will be spent simply getting to its func-
tional position. Thereafter, it’ll start science
operations and, we hope, bring us a new understanding of the Sun.
The objective here is to study the Sun’s heliosphere, the bubblelike
region of space that surrounds our star. A constant stream of particles
and energy f lowing from the Sun, the solar wind, controls the helio-
sphere. How is it created? What governs its behavior? What does the
interaction between the heliosphere and the region surrounding it in
our local part of the galaxy say? If Solar Orbiter is a success, we may
come away in less than a decade with a far better understanding of
how the Sun works as a star, and how our solar system relates to the
galaxy around us.
The spacecraft’s orbit will carry it close to the Sun every six months.
Solar Orbiter will study magnetically active regions that can produce
f lares and eruptions. It will study, in detail, how the so-called solar
dynamo, the energy-generating process deep within the Sun, works.
It will study how the magnetic field originates, and the genesis of the
solar wind. It will study solar storms and how they affect the helio-
sphere with energetic particles. It will study how f lares, coronal mass
ejections, prominences, and shock waves change the outf low of the
heliosphere.
We should be on the cusp of a new understanding of our home star.
Science journalist Ben Evans provides a detailed look at the game-
changing Solar Orbiter in our cover story, beginning on page 18.
As we live our complex lives on Earth, it’s easy to forget that the
Sun’s radiation can affect us dramatically. Not only does our local
star give us the energy needed for our lives, but it can present signifi-
c a nt d a ngers , too. Hu ge f la re s a nd sola r stor ms i n t he pa st have rocked
Earth’s magnetic field, and such mammoth disruptions have never
yet happened in our modern, technological world. As we have har-
nessed electronics to make our lives better, the Sun may someday give
us an ugly check, reminding us that we are not masters of the solar
system — not yet.Yo u r s t r u l y,
David J. Eicher
EditorA close look
at the Sun
Editor David J. Eicher
Design Director LuAnn Williams Belter
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