SOHO
A European–American spacecraft that has watched the Sun without a break since 1996.
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The outer corona
SOHO's LASCO C3 coronagraph hides the Sun to show the solar wind and the clouds of material the Sun throws into space.
Image: SOHO/LASCO (ESA & NASA)
SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) sits between the Sun and Earth, where nothing ever blocks its view. Its coronagraphs hide the bright disk to show the faint outer corona and the clouds the Sun throws into space, and along the way it has found more than 5,000 comets.
Key facts
- Type
- Space observatory (Sun)
- Orbit
- Around the Sun–Earth L1 point, 1.5 million km from Earth
- Launched
- 2 December 1995
- Operators
- ESA and NASA