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Solar Probe to Launch Sunday on Mission to Map Sun's Polar Regions

Reuters

   WASHINGTON - A new spacecraft built jointly by U.S. and European space
   agencies is ready for a blazing journey to the sun to capture an
   unprecedented view of its two poles, an angle that could help
   researchers understand how the star's vast bubble of magnetic energy
   affects Earth.

   The Solar Orbiter spacecraft will lift off from a Florida launch pad
   Sunday at 11:03 p.m. EST (0400 GMT Monday) and autonomously unfold an
   array of solar panels and antennas before carrying on toward the sun
   for a 10-year mission mapping its polar regions.

   Mapping the sun's poles could allow scientists for the first time to
   observe the concentrated source of solar wind -- a stream of plasma and
   charged particles that beam outward and sustains the solar system's
   protective outer bubble that breathes in and out in harmony with the
   solar wind.

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