European Solar Orbiter spacecraft will make first close pass of the Sun today

mirror.co.uk:

Europe’s Solar Orbiter spacecraft will make its first close pass of the Sun today. The spacecraft will swing past the sun at a distance of just over 47 million miles, during a close pass known as a perihelion.

This distance puts solar orbiter between the orbits of Mercury and Venus. The European Space Agency (ESA) explained: “ESA’s Sun-exploring mission Solar Orbiter will take the closest ever images of the surface of our parent star. “During its 21-month cruise, the spacecraft will take advantage of the gravity of Earth and Venus to place itself into the correct orbit around the Sun. “Solar Orbiter’s elliptical science orbit, with a closest point at 42 million km from the star’s surface, will take the spacecraft within the orbit of the