The Ulysses Speacecraft


by Ernie Fitzpatrick - Date: 2008-04-14 - Word Count: 519 Share This!

This is the year that one of our most valuable tools for understanding the sun and it's solar flares will cease to exist. Ulysses is a robotic space probe designed to study the Sun at all latitudes. The Ulyssess spacecraft, was launched in October 1990 from the Space Shuttle Discovery as a joint venture of NASA and the European Space Agency. And it's unique mission has given us new insights.

The Ulysses spacecraft continues to go where no other spacecraft has gone before, namely, over the Sun's poles to study the Sun and its influence on the environment. Previous spacecrafts have remained near the Sun's equator where the Earth and other planets are located, however, Ulysses' orbit is perpendicular or highly inclined to all other spacecraft orbits providing a unique perspective from which to study the Sun and its effect on surrounding space.

With 2012 just a fews years down the universal highway and it's expected peak solar flare activity, we need to know all we can about this amazing star that brings us life, and yet poses great dangers as well. Observations of the solar wind, magnetic field, solar energetic particles and cosmic rays can help us better understand the 2011-2012 peack cycle. Will it be 40% stronger than nornal as the passive cycle was?

Understanding solar activity is important not only because the Sun is an average star that is available for close scrutiny but because it has important consequences for Earth and its inhabitants as we continue to move into a new era of space-based technology and are able to send people into space and its hazards. Solar activity and the sunspots are driven by the solar magnetic field that changes dramatically over a 22-year cycle.

On January 14th of this year, Ulysses spacecraft today is making a rare flyby of the sun's north pole. Unlike any other spacecraft, Ulysses is able to sample winds at the sun's poles, which are difficult to study from Earth. Ulysses has flown over the sun's poles three times before, in 1994-95, 2000-01 and 2007. Last week, solar physicists announced the first indications of a new solar cycle. Visiting the pole at this time may lead to new insights about solar activity.

During the first Ulysses orbit, the Sun's magnetic poles were positive with outward fields in the north and negative or inward fields in the south. During Ulysses second orbit at sunspot maximum, the Sun's polar fields disappeared and then reappeared with the opposite sense, negative or inward in the north and positive or outward in the south. What predictions can we make of this, if any?

Strange things are happening that we never knew before Ulysses was launched. Ulysses discovered the sun's high-speed polar wind. At the sun's poles, the magnetic field opens up and allows solar atmosphere to stream out at a million miles per hour. By flying around the sun, covering all latitudes in a way that no other spacecraft can, Ulysses has been able to monitor this polar wind throughout the solar cycle and has found that it is acting a bit odd.

And? Stay tuned! :-)


Related Tags: nasa, sun spots, 2012, magnetic field, ulysses spacecraft, sun flares, space shuttle discovery, solar wind, solar energetic particles, cosmic rays

ernie@lrchouston.com

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