The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
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One of the major discoveries of Ulysses concerns the understanding of the solar magnetic field and how solar particles are transported along it. Before Ulysses, the field lines were thought to expand as ordered ‘garden hose’ spirals (left panel). Ulysses found that on the contrary, they are rather irregular (right panel) and expand much more over different latitudes than originally thought. As a consequence, solar particles ejected around the equator can find their way up to the poles, and vice-versa.
This is very important as regions of the Sun, not previously considered as possible sources of hazardous particles for astronauts and satellites, must now be taken into account and carefully monitored.