Which European Space Agency mission, launched in 2020, is studying the Sun?

The European Space Agency mission launched in 2020 to study the Sun is Solar Orbiter. It lifted off on 10 February 2020 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on an Atlas V rocket, with NASA contributing to the mission.

Solar Orbiter combines remote-sensing instruments with instruments that directly sample the solar wind and magnetic environment around the spacecraft. Its goals include investigating how the Sun generates the solar wind, how magnetic fields produce solar eruptions, and how energetic particles travel through interplanetary space.

The spacecraft uses repeated gravity assists from Venus to reshape and tilt its orbit. This gradually raises its inclination above the ecliptic, allowing Solar Orbiter to obtain increasingly clear views of the Sun’s polar regions—areas that are difficult to observe from Earth’s orbital viewpoint. Its heat shield protects the spacecraft during close approaches to the Sun.

The mission is often confused with SOHO, another ESA–NASA solar observatory launched in 1995, or NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, launched in 2018. Parker travels much closer to the Sun and emphasizes in-situ measurements, while Solar Orbiter combines close observations with detailed imaging and spectroscopy.