Gerald
10-04-11, 02:17 PM
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The probe will orbit closer to the Sun than any previous spacecraft.
Europe is to lead the most ambitious space mission ever undertaken to study the behaviour of the Sun.Known as Solar Orbiter, the probe will have to operate a mere 42 million km from our star - closer than any spacecraft to date.The mission proposal was formally adopted by European Space Agency (Esa) member states on Tuesday.Solar Orbiter is expected to launch in 2017 and will cost close to a billion euros. Nasa (the US space agency) will participate, providing two instruments for the probe and the rocket to send it on its way.The Esa delegates, who were meeting in Paris, also selected a mission to investigate two of the great mysteries of modern cosmology - dark matter and dark energy. Scientists are convinced that these phenomena dominate and shape the Universe but their nature has so far eluded any satisfactory explanation. The discovery in the late 1990s of dark energy and its influence on cosmic expansion was recognised with a Nobel Prize earlier in the day for three scientists.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15146082
Note: 4 October 2011 Last updated at 15:08 GMT
The probe will orbit closer to the Sun than any previous spacecraft.
Europe is to lead the most ambitious space mission ever undertaken to study the behaviour of the Sun.Known as Solar Orbiter, the probe will have to operate a mere 42 million km from our star - closer than any spacecraft to date.The mission proposal was formally adopted by European Space Agency (Esa) member states on Tuesday.Solar Orbiter is expected to launch in 2017 and will cost close to a billion euros. Nasa (the US space agency) will participate, providing two instruments for the probe and the rocket to send it on its way.The Esa delegates, who were meeting in Paris, also selected a mission to investigate two of the great mysteries of modern cosmology - dark matter and dark energy. Scientists are convinced that these phenomena dominate and shape the Universe but their nature has so far eluded any satisfactory explanation. The discovery in the late 1990s of dark energy and its influence on cosmic expansion was recognised with a Nobel Prize earlier in the day for three scientists.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15146082
Note: 4 October 2011 Last updated at 15:08 GMT