4 ms·

Hm, the article seems to have gotten its units wrong. Normally I'd trust the article but 43 million kilometers seems to match best with its orbit I can find doc

• KineticLensman 2y ago
  I was wrong with my initial jumping to conclusions, but on inspection I see that the underlying ESA press release [0] actually says "The images were taken when Solar Orbiter was less than 74 million kilometres from the Sun". Now I'm really confused. [0] https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Solar_Orbiter/New_full_Sun_views_show_sunspots_fields_and_restless_plasma https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Solar_...
  • lovecg 2y ago
    Well, they’re _technically_ correct.
  • grues-dinner 2y ago
    Presumably the images were taken on the way to perihelion. The orbit isn't circular, it's both highly eccentric and inclined relative to the ecliptic to get a view of the solar poles. A plane change is really hard on delta-v, so they tilt the orbit up bit by bit with repeated Venusian gravity assists. In the main science phase of the mission there are 14 planned perihelion approaches. There's a diagram here, but at least some of the information there seems preliminary as they eventually launched with a black "Solar Black" heat shield coating rather than white titanium dioxide because the latter wasn't sufficiently UV-stable. https://www.eoportal.org/satellite-missions/solar-orbiter-mission#solar-orbiter-mission https://www.eoportal.org/satellite-missions/solar-orbiter-mi...