Solar and Heliophysics Probes

Solar and Heliophysics Probes gathers the space probes whose primary mission is to study the Sun itself or the heliophysics of its connection to the rest of the Solar System, the broader field NASA defines as covering the exploration, discovery and understanding of Earth's space environment and the linked phenomena across the region of the cosmos a star like the Sun influences. Heliophysics is broader than solar physics, which studies only the Sun's own interior, atmosphere and magnetic fields, and instead concentrates on the Sun's effects on Earth and other Solar System bodies and on the changing conditions of interplanetary space. Members of this group include NASA's Parker Solar Probe, the European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter, the Ulysses solar-polar mission, and the Genesis sample-return probe.