The ESA’s Solar Orbiter is on a mission to study the Sun, but before reaching there it has to perform a few flybys of other planets including Earth. This week, the Orbiter will set for its riskiest flyby, dipping through space junk that surrounds our planet before heading towards the Sun.

Solar Orbiter will reach its closest point to our planet on November 27 at 6:30 a.m. ET, when it will come within 286 miles of Earth’s surface over North Africa and the Canary Islands. It’s only a little above the orbit of the ISS, showcasing just how close the spacecraft will come to Earth, and it will have to pass through two rings of space junk in geostationary orbit as well as low-Earth orbit.

Solar Orbiter to observe campfires on Sun

The close flyby is required to slow the craft down enough to line it up for a close pass of the Sun, where it will collect data on the recently discovered “campfires” seen on the surface of the Sun. To do so, the craft has to get close, and its next pass of the Sun in March 2022 will take it within 30 million miles of the Sun.

“This flyby is exciting: seeing what Solar Orbiter sees in our part of space, and how that compares to what we are seeing, and if there are surprises, what are they?” said Anja Strømme, Swarm Mission Manager.

Great opportunity for stargazers

As Solar Orbiter prepares for its riskiest flyby of our planet, it might even be possible to see it from the ground. “In the moments leading up to closest approach, skywatchers in the Canaries and North Africa could catch a brief glimpse of the spacecraft speeding through the sky,” ESA advises.

“It will be traveling at about 0.3 degrees per second, which is just over half the apparent diameter of the Moon every second. For most observers, it will be too faint to spot with the unaided eye, and too fast for telescopes to track, so binoculars should provide the best chance of catching a glimpse.”