Watch wind whirl from the Sun

26 March 2025

Aside from sunlight, the Sun sends out a gusty stream of particles called the solar wind. The ESA-led Solar Orbiter mission is the first to capture on camera this wind flying out from the Sun in a twisting, whirling motion. The solar wind particles spiral outwards as if caught in a cyclone that extends millions of kilometres from the... read more

Science Nugget: Radial dependence of solar energetic particle peak fluxes and fluences

19 March 2025

As the core energy source of the solar system, the Sun continuously supplies energy to interplanetary space through persistent radiative and particle emissions. At the microscopic level, this energy propagates outward in the form of electromagnetic waves and particle streams of varying energies. Among these, Solar Energetic Particles (SEPs),... read more

Science Nugget: Analysis of Solar Eruptions Deflecting in the Low Corona

12 March 2025

Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are the drivers of the most powerful geomagnetic storms and a major concern in space weather. A reliable prediction of the eruption and its subsequent trajectory is crucial to assess its potential threat to satellites, communication networks, or other systems. Multi-point observations, including Solar... read more

Solar Orbiter spots a solar flare

11 March 2025

A dazzling solar flare was captured by the ESA-led Solar Orbiter mission on 30 September 2024.

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Catch solar bursts in new citizen science project

11 March 2025

Help us uncover the secrets of the Sun! Our Solar Orbiter spacecraft has been watching the Sun since February 2020. With five years’ worth of data waiting to be explored, it’s time to dig in. The new 'Solar Radio Burst Tracker' Zooniverse project is ready for you.

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Science Nugget: Propagation of particles inside a magnetic cloud: Solar Orbiter insights

5 March 2025

Solar energetic particle (SEP) events are sudden bursts of particle intensities linked to solar transient activities [1, 2, 3]. These particles can be released into the solar wind or within interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs), as a result of impulsive acceleration during flares at the base of the parent ICME or when a newly formed... read more

Science Nugget: Assessment of the near Sun axial magnetic field of the 10 March 2022 CME observed by Solar Orbiter from active region helicity budget

26 February 2025

Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) are energetic eruptions of plasma and magnetic fields from the solar atmosphere (Forbes 2000; Chen 2011; Webb and Howard 2012). Understanding the near-Sun magnetic field strength of CMEs is crucial as it plays a key role in shaping the early evolution of CME dynamics and their potential geoeffectiveness. However,... read more

Science Nugget: Rotational motions and signatures of the Alfvén waves in a fan spine topology

19 February 2025

Alfvén waves are of significant interest in the coronal heating problem due to their ability to transport energy from the lower layers of the Sun’s atmosphere to the corona [1]. However, their detection remains challenging because they are essentially rotational perturbations in plasma velocity and azimuthal components of the magnetic field,... read more

Solar Orbiter ready for close encounter with Venus

18 February 2025

The European Space Agency (ESA) is ready to guide the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter spacecraft through its closest encounter with Venus so far.

Today’s flyby will be the first to significantly ‘tilt’ the spacecraft’s orbit and allow it to see the Sun’s polar regions, which cannot be seen from Earth.

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Science Nugget: ‘Sun’day everyday: 2 years of Solar Orbiter Science nuggets that shed light on some of our star’s mysteries

12 February 2025

Almost two years ago, and after a year since the start of the nominal science phase, we introduced the Solar Orbiter science nuggets to the solar and space science communities. These are short articles based on a topic related to the use of Solar Orbiter data and answering some of the fundamental questions in solar and space physics.

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