太陽(yáng)軌道飛行器正在飛往太陽(yáng)的途中

太陽(yáng)軌道飛行器正在飛往太陽(yáng)的途中

In the late hours of Sunday (US time), the European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter officially lifted off from Cape Canaveral in Florida. It is now on its way to the Sun, which it will study like no other spacecraft or telescope has before.

周日晚些時(shí)候(美國(guó)時(shí)間)，歐洲航天局的太陽(yáng)能軌道飛行器正式從佛羅里達(dá)州卡納維拉爾角發(fā)射升空。它現(xiàn)在正在飛往太陽(yáng)的途中，它將像以往任何航天器或望遠(yuǎn)鏡一樣研究太陽(yáng)。

Alfredo Carpineti

Solar Orbiter is now on a 20-month journey to its operational orbit, which will take it as close as 42 million kilometers (26 million miles) from our star. But it's not its closeness that will provide us with new views of the Sun, it's how its orbit will change over the course of the mission.

太陽(yáng)軌道飛行器現(xiàn)在正在進(jìn)行一段20個(gè)月的旅程，到達(dá)運(yùn)行軌道，這將使它距離我們的恒星4200萬(wàn)公里(2600萬(wàn)英里)。但它的近距離并不能給我們提供對(duì)太陽(yáng)的新看法，而是它的軌道在執(zhí)行任務(wù)的過(guò)程中會(huì)發(fā)生怎樣的變化。

The spacecraft will regularly come close to the planet Venus, and the team will use these encounters to give Solar Orbiter a “kick.” As time goes by, the orbit of the spacecraft will become more and more inclined with respect to the plane of the Solar System, and this will allow the first observation ever of the Sun's poles.

航天器將定期接近金星，該團(tuán)隊(duì)將利用這些接觸給太陽(yáng)軌道器一個(gè)“踢力”。“隨著時(shí)間的推移，航天器的軌道將越來(lái)越傾向于太陽(yáng)系的平面，這將使首次觀測(cè)太陽(yáng)兩極成為可能。

But this is just one piece of incredible science that we can expect from Solar Orbiter. Its suite of instruments will be used to better understand the solar wind, the stream of electrically charged particles coming from the Sun. It will also study the many magnetic mysteries of our star, uncovering how the Sun changes, and how it affects the space around it.

但這只是我們可以從太陽(yáng)軌道飛行器中期待的一項(xiàng)不可思議的科學(xué)。這套設(shè)備將被用來(lái)更好地理解太陽(yáng)風(fēng)，太陽(yáng)風(fēng)是來(lái)自太陽(yáng)的帶電粒子流。它還將研究我們的恒星的許多磁之謎，揭示太陽(yáng)如何變化，以及它如何影響它周圍的空間。

“As humans, we have always been familiar with the importance of the Sun to life on Earth, observing it and investigating how it works in detail, but we have also long known it has the potential to disrupt everyday life should we be in the firing line of a powerful solar storm,” Günther Hasinger, ESA director of science, said in a statement. “By the end of our Solar Orbiter mission, we will know more about the hidden force responsible for the Sun’s changing behaviour and its influence on our home planet than ever before.”

“作為人類,我們一直熟悉太陽(yáng)到地球上的生命的重要性,詳細(xì)觀察它,研究它是如何工作的,但我們也知道它有可能擾亂日常生活我們應(yīng)該在最前線的一個(gè)強(qiáng)大的太陽(yáng)風(fēng)暴,”岡瑟馬普,ESA科學(xué)主任,在一份聲明中說(shuō)。“到我們的太陽(yáng)軌道飛行器任務(wù)結(jié)束時(shí)，我們將比以往任何時(shí)候都更了解導(dǎo)致太陽(yáng)行為變化及其對(duì)地球影響的隱藏力量。”

The mission has a nominal duration of seven years, and the team hopes it will be extended for three more. The mission will involve collaboration with NASA, with particularly strong links to the Parker Solar Probe, the American space agency’s flagship mission around our Sun.

這次任務(wù)的名義期限為7年，該小組希望再延長(zhǎng)3年。這項(xiàng)任務(wù)將與美國(guó)國(guó)家航空航天局合作，與帕克太陽(yáng)探測(cè)器有特別緊密的聯(lián)系，帕克太陽(yáng)探測(cè)器是美國(guó)宇航局圍繞太陽(yáng)的旗艦任務(wù)。