The European Space Agency is due to launch it's Solar Orbiter on Monday 10 February, and Dr David Brown from the University of Warwick Department of Physics has commented on the mission's importance in understanding the behaviour of our own Sun.

He said: “Solar Orbiter is an exciting mission that will be invaluable for our understanding of the Sun and its influence on the Solar System. With its ten instruments and extremely close orbit around the Sun (well within the orbit of Mercury), Solar Orbiter will give us an unprecedented close-up view of the Sun, including the first images of previously uncharted regions around the Sun’s poles. The mission will also provide new information to help us answer big questions such as how the Sun’s magnetic field is generated, how flares and other eruptions produce the energetic particles that lead to extreme space weather, and how the solar wind is generated.”

7 February 2020

For interviews contact:

Peter Thorley
Media Relations Manager (Warwick Medical School and Department of Physics)

Email: peter.thorley@warwick.ac.uk

Tel: +44 (0)24 761 50868

Mob: +44 (0) 7824 540863