Solar craft reaches a new low
By Ron Cowen
The venerable Ulysses spacecraft has gone south.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/02/6535.jpg?resize=150%2C118&ssl=1)
That’s just what solar scientists had been counting on. Earlier this month, the craft passed directly below the sun, looking at the south pole from a distance of 329 million kilometers. In its 16 years of orbiting the sun, Ulysses has flown past the south pole only twice before, a feat no other solar probe has attempted.