Race for Sun heats up: These are the various solar missions

With ISRO set to launch its solar mission Aditya-L1 on September 2, here are some important missions launched by space agencies of different countries exploring the Sun

As the Indian Space Research Organisation set to launch its solar mission Aditya-L1 on September 2, following are some important missions launched by space agencies of different countries exploring the Sun:

Also read: Explained | After Chandrayaan-3, what has ISRO planned?

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the U.S. space agency, launched the Parker Solar Probe in August 2018. In December 2021, Parker flew through the Sun's upper atmosphere, the corona, and sampled particles and magnetic fields there. This was the first time ever that a spacecraft touched the Sun, according to NASA's official website.

In February 2020, the NASA joined hands with the European Space Agency (ESA) and launched The Solar Orbiter to collect data to find out how the Sun created and controlled the constantly changing space environment throughout the solar system.

Other active solar missions by the NASA are Advanced Composition Explorer launched in August, 1997; Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory in October, 2006; Solar Dynamics Observatory in February, 2010; and Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph launched in June, 2013.

Also, in December, 1995, NASA, ESA and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) jointly launched the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO).

JAXA, the Japan's space agency, launched its first solar observation satellite, Hinotori (ASTRO-A), in 1981. The objective was to study solar flares using hard X-rays, according to JAXA's official website.