Two space probes are to be sent to explore the Sun, in an attempt to get closer to the centre of the star than any previous mission.
The spacecraft will travel more than 70 million miles to one of the least hospitable regions of our solar system, where temperatures are hot enough to melt metal and intense radiation along with chaotic magnetic fields can tear manmade structures apart.
Scientists hope the missions will help them answer a long list of questions that still exist about the sun, including why its outer atmosphere is hotter than its surface, and what causes solar wind, sun spots and flares.
The missions are to be outlined by scientists at a major conference of solar physicists in Bournemouth this week.
One of the missions, known as Solar Orbiter, will orbit the sun to give scientists a view of its poles, which have never been seen before. Led by the European Space Agency (ESA) with backing from Nasa, the mission is expected to launch in 2017, and design work is already under way.
The spacecraft, fitted with a 15-inch-thick heat shield to protect it from the intense heat and radiation, will orbit at around 20 million miles from the Sun’s surface – around two thirds of the distance between the Sun and Mercury, the closest planet.
It will take the most detailed pictures of the Sun’s surface ever achieved while also measuring particle emissions and magnetic fields.
