On June 15, Solar Orbiter performed the first flyby with the Sun at a distance of 77 million kilometers. In these days, the scientists are testing the ten instruments on board, including those realized by the Italian scientific community, such as the Metis coronograph, the Data Processing Unit of the Solar Wind Analyzer, and the Stix detector.
The next perihelion passages will be in the early 2021 and in 2022, when the spacecraft will approach the Sun at a distance of only 48 million kilometers, when it will be able to observe the poles of the Sun and study in details the field magnetic and the Solar wind.
Read the original article at: globalscience.it
