Solar Orbiter, Parker Solar Probe, Solar-C, SOHO...

 

These spacecrafts were designed to make huge discoveries about the Sun. And their process has been no short of fascinating especially when exploring the effects of solar weather on Earth!

 

Did you know that SOHO is the longest-lived Sun-watching satellite to date, with numerous mission extensions to observe two 11-year solar cycles in which it also became the most prolific discoverer of more than 3k comets in astronomical history?

 

Did you know that the Sun’s core is about 27 million degrees Fahrenheit, and the temperature cools dramatically toward the outer layers of  the Sun where the middle layer or the convection zone is 3.5 million degrees Fahrenheit, at the very surface 10k degrees Fahrenheit, and the corona reaches temperatures up to several million degrees Fahrenheit which is 200 to 500 times hotter than the solar surface below?

 

Did you know that solar winds comprise a steady stream of particles blowing away from the Sun, blustering at 800,000 to five million miles per hour?

 

Here’s a timeline on other major discoveries relating to solar winds and the corona!