ESA’s Solar Orbiter will be the first spacecraft to study the sun’s polar zones
A new solar mission will help solve some of our star’s thorniest mysteries
![illustration of ESA Solar Orbiter probe in front of the sun](https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/020620_cc_solarorbiter_feat.jpg?fit=1028%2C579&ssl=1)
ESA’s Solar Orbiter probe (illustrated) has begun a nearly two-year journey to gaze directly at the sun from an orbit that takes it closer to the sun than Mercury gets.
ESA/ATG medialab