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ever since we've been pointing

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spacecraft at the sun

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two regions on our star have been

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missing from satellite images

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the sun's two poles have never been

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mapped because all the solar images

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we've built have remained in the

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ecliptic plane

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the swath of space roughly aligned with

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the sun's equator where all the planets

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orbit

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a new mission from the european space

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agency and nasa called solar orbiter

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aims to escape this plane and take the

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very first images of the poles

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the planets are all moving and circling

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the sun and so we already have some

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velocity going one way if we want to

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launch up out of the ecliptic it

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requires more energy

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to get outside the ecliptic plane solar

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orbiter uses earth's and venus's gravity

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to slingshot itself into a view of the

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poles

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the only other satellite to fly over the

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poles was ulysses which launched in 1990

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to study the solar atmosphere

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but solar orbiter will be the first

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mission to capture actual images of this

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hard to reach region

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scientists think the poles could be the

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missing piece to understanding what

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drives the sun's activity

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every 11 years the sun's magnetic field

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flips north becomes south and vice versa

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this mysterious process has direct

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effects on earth before the poles flip

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solar activity reaches its peak the

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number of eruptions increases sending

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powerful bursts of solar material that

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can potentially harm our astronauts and

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satellites we don't really have a good

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understanding of the global solar

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behavior another one of the missions

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goals is to monitor how these eruptions

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and solar material travel through space

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using a suite of 10 instruments solar

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orbiter observes an active region on the

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surface as it explodes and then also

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takes measurements as the escaping

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material passes directly by the

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spacecraft

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solar orbiter will give us a

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comprehensive full view of the entire

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sun

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the entire solar system at closest

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approach solar orbiter will be closer to

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the sun than mercury at a mere distance

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of 26 million miles away

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the ideal distance to get a

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comprehensive view of the sun and its

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surrounding atmosphere

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it will fly close to the sun every six

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months and endure temperatures more than

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900 degrees fahrenheit

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to survive the intense radiation a large

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titanium shield protects the instruments

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while a carefully orchestrated dance of

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opening and closing eye holes in the

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shield allows the instruments to peep

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out at the right time

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other instruments will directly measure

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solar material from behind the shadow of

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the shield

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all of these observations will tell us

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more about the sun than we've ever known

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before

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and by the end of the seven year mission

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we will have seen our star in a

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completely new way

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our understanding of the sun will change

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dramatically