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Space Topics

SOHO


The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) is an international project that is allowing solar scientists to study the Sun in depth, over the long term. Launched by an Atlas II from Cape Canaveral Air Station on December 2, 1995, the space observatory is still in operation, investigating everything from the Sun's deep core to the solar wind, the stream of highly ionized gas that blows continuously outward through the solar system.

SOHO moves around the Sun on the sunward side of the Earth by slowly orbiting around Lagrange point L1, a spot in space where the gravitational fields of the Earth and Sun cancel each other, and where it can get an uninterrupted view. Together with two other ESA missions – Cluster and Ulysses – SOHO is adding significantly to the knowledge base about Sun-Earth interactions. The space observatory features a payload of 12 complementary instruments, developed and furnished by 12 international consortia involving 29 institutes from 15 countries.

To date, SOHO has provided a wealth of new data, including the first images of a star's convection zone, and the first data on the structure of sunspots below the surface, as well as acceleration speeds of the slow and fast solar wind, and dynamic solar phenomena, such as coronal waves and solar tornadoes. SOHO was built in Europe and launched by NASA, which is commanding operations from the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC).