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Darmstadt (dpa) - On its mission to the sun, the “Solar Orbiter” probe flew very close to Venus.
According to the European space agency Esa, it was only 7448 kilometers from Venus at 11:39 a.m. and 20 seconds (CET) on Sunday.
"Everything went smoothly, there were no problems," said the head of the Esa mission operations in the control center in Darmstadt, Simon Plum, on Monday.
Details on the exact trajectory will be given in the next week when the navigation data is evaluated.
Due to the corona, only a small team had observed the flyby in the control center.
A lot of things happen from home, says Plum.
"The probe is slowed down and its orbit changed so that it can take a new look at the sun's poles in the future."
The mission of Esa and the US space agency NASA, costing around 1.5 billion euros, was launched in February from Cape Canaveral in the US state of Florida.
"The probe is currently 231 million kilometers from Earth and 108 million kilometers from the Sun," said the expert.
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There are ten scientific instruments on board the 1.8-ton orbiter.
Researchers hope to gain new knowledge about the sun and the magnetic field that drives solar storms or eruptions and thus also has an impact on our home planet.
“Solar Orbiter” is said to fly up to 42 million kilometers from the sun.
In order to be protected from temperatures of several hundred degrees, the probe has a titanium heat shield.
The first images of the orbiter from a distance of 77 million kilometers were presented in July.
According to experts, no mission to take pictures of the star has been this close.
Esa to the Solar Orbiter