NASA/ESA’s Solar Orbiter just hit a major mission milestone

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Mike Wehner

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  • The joint mission between NASA and the European Space Agency to send a solar probe to the Sun just reached a critical milestone.
  • The probe passed Venus over the weekend, making its closest approach to the planet at a distance of around 4,700 miles.
  • The probe's primary mission is to study the Sun, but it managed to collect a bunch of data about Venus when it cruised past the planet.

The Sun at the center of our solar system is pretty important. You probably don't give its life-giving rays a second thought as you go about your day-to-day life, but there are scientists who think about it a lot. Understanding what makes the Sun tick, so to speak, and the dangers it could pose to Earth are important, and that's why NASA has launched multiple missions to study the star in recent years.

The new Solar Orbiter, a joint mission between the European Space Agency and NASA, hopes to reveal some of the Sun's secrets, but first, it has to actually get there. In a new update from the ESA, we're told that the orbiter has just passed Venus on its way to the Sun, ticking a major milestone in its journey while conducting a bit of science at the same time.

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NASA/ESA’s Solar Orbiter just hit a major mission milestone originally appeared on BGR.com on Mon, 28 Dec 2020 at 23:14:57 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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