ESA/NASA's Solar Orbiter is returning its first science data, including images of the Sun taken from closer than any spacecraft in history. Credits: ESA/ATG Medialab

Scientists from NASA and ESA (European Space Agency) will release the first data captured by Solar Orbiter, the joint ESA/NASA mission to study the Sun, during an online news briefing at 8 a.m. EDT Thursday, July 16. The briefing will stream live on NASA’s website.

In mid-June, Solar Orbiter made its first close pass of the Sun following its Feb. 9 launch, turning on all 10 of its instruments together for the first time. This flyby captured the closest images ever taken of the Sun. During the briefing, mission experts will discuss what these closeup images reveal about our star, including what we can learn from Solar Orbiter’s new measurements of particles and magnetic fields flowing from the Sun.

Participants in the briefing include:

• Daniel Müller – Solar Orbiter Project Scientist at ESA
• Holly R. Gilbert – Solar Orbiter Project Scientist at NASA
• José Luis Pellón Bailón – Solar Orbiter Deputy Spacecraft Operations Manager at ESA
• David Berghmans – Principal investigator of the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) at the Royal Observatory of Belgium
• Sami Solanki – Principal investigator of the Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager (PHI) and director of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research
• Christopher J. Owen – Principal investigator of the Solar Wind Analyser (SWA) at Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London

Members of the media interested in participating should register at https://www.esa.int/Contact/mediaregistration by 6 a.m. EDT Wednesday, July 15, to be able to ask questions during the briefing. For further questions please contact: media@esa.int

For more information on the Solar Orbiter mission, visit:

https://sci.esa.int/web/solar-orbiter/home

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Press Contacts

Grey Hautaluoma / Karen Fox
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-0668 / 301-286-6284
grey.hautaluoma-1@nasa.gov / karen.fox@nasa.gov

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