NASA and the Sun | Universe Today

Written by Fraser Cain

NASA has done a tremendous amount of research on the Sun. In fact, it's fair to say that we wouldn't know as much about the Sun as we know today if it weren't for many of NASA's missions to help explore the Sun.

The first satellites ever launched with the purpose of observing the Sun were NASA's Pioneers 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9. All of these spacecraft orbited the Sun at roughly the same distance as the Earth, and made measurements of the solar wind and the solar magnetic field.

NASA's next Sun space mission was Helios 1, launched in the 1970s by Germany and NASA. It went into heliocentric orbit to study solar processes. Although Helios 1 and 2 completed their primary missions in the 1980s, they continued to send data until 1985.

The Solar Maximum Mission was launched in 1980, but it went into standby mode shortly after launch and was unusable. The satellite was retrieved by the space shuttle Challenger in 1984, repaired and released. It went on to take thousands of images of the solar corona.

Perhaps the most famous of NASA's missions to the Sun is the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, developed in collaboration with the European Space Agency, and launched in 1995. Although it was only supposed to have a 2 year mission, SOHO has been operating for more than a decade, and returned the data that has shaped our current understanding of the Sun.

NASA's latest mission to explore the Sun is the twin STEREO spacecraft, launched in 2006. One spacecraft in the pair has fallen behind the Earth in orbit, while the other is orbiting ahead of us. From these twin vantage points, scientists are able to build up 3-dimensional images of the Sun. This will help astronomers better understand the processes acting on the surface of the Sun, and predict space weather.

So, a big thanks to NASA and its work on exploring the Sun.

We've written many article about all these spacecraft. Check out this article about SOHO celebrating its 12th birthday, and a cool video of the Sun captured by STEREO.

Here's a link to the SOHO homepage from NASA, and here's a link to the STEREO homepage.

We have recorded an episode of Astronomy Cast just about the Sun called The Sun, Spots and All.

Filed under: Astronomy