The Solar Orbiter has escaped a serious punch from its host while travelling toward the Sun.
The European Space Agency (ESA)-built spacecraft was undergoing a gravity assist manoeuvre to approach closer to Venus when it was struck by a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) from the Sun.
The Sun is currently teeming with activity, and the coronal mass ejection that started on August 30 impacted Venus after passing Mercury in addition to the orbiter.
On August 4, the spacecraft experienced strong activity as it passed by close to Earth’s mystery twin to change its orbit as it travelled toward the Sun.
One of the largest eruptions from the Sun’s surface, a coronal mass ejection can go into space at speeds of up to several million miles per hour with a billion tonnes of material inside.
The radiation and particles have a tendency to alter the atmosphere in space and are occasionally fatal to electronics and satellites, killing them quickly.
More data is being downloaded for study, despite the European Space Agency’s insistence that the probe flying near to Venus has not suffered any harm.
The probe is built to survive the powerful outbursts from our star and collect data during them.
With every gravity assist that lowers its orbit along the way, the probe, which is on a 10-year mission to study the Sun, comes closer to its objective.
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