Vigil Archive

ESA Vigil will be the first of its kind. By keeping an eagle eye on the 'side' of the Sun, the spacecraft will stream a constant feed of near real-time data on potentially hazardous solar activity, before it rolls into view from Earth. The mission will give us advance warning of oncoming solar storms and therefore more time to protect spacecraft in orbit, infrastructure on the ground and explorers now and in the future, unshielded by Earth's magnetic field and vulnerable to our star's violent outbursts. ESA Vigil takes its name from the Latin ‘vigilis exceptus’ meaning sentry, and also ‘vigilia’ meaning wakefulness and the act of keeping a devoted watch.