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The sun readies for its close-up as Europe’s Solar Orbiter approaches

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The European Solar Orbiter mission will make its closest approach to the sun later this month, promising to capture images that could unravel some of the mysterious behaviours of the star at the heart of our solar system. Solar Orbiter, a European Space Agency (ESA) mission with a contribution from NASA, launched in February 2020. … Read more

Curiosity rover snaps close-up of tiny ‘mineral flower’ on Mars

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A photo of the “mineral flower”  alongside other diagenetic features on the surface of Mars captured by NASA’s Curiosity rover on Feb. 25. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS) NASA’s Curiosity rover recently got up close and personal with a tiny, flower-like mineral deposit on the surface of Mars. The beautiful branching rock, which is just 0.4 inch … Read more

Watch ‘coronal streamers’ streak off the sun in close-up video from Parker Solar Probe

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A new video of solar streamers evokes the streaking stars seen during spacecraft hyperdrives in “Star Wars.” The new NASA video from the Parker Solar Probe shows these mysterious sun structures up close for the first time, flowing past the spacecraft like interstellar fireflies. Previously, we could only catch a glimpse of streamers during solar … Read more