ESA - Space Science - Ulysses mission coming to a natural end

Space Science

About Space Science ESA's 'Cosmic Vision'Science & Technology in-depth

Multimedia

Science images Science videos Animations Downloads Sounds from space

Media centre

Press Releases Press kits ESA Television

Resources

Reference section Glossary FAQs

Science missions

Services

Help Legal disclaimer Comments Subscribe

RSS feeds

ESA Sci on Twitter

Article Images

Ulysses mission coming to a natural end

22 February 2008

Back to article

Download:

HI-RES JPEG (Size: 191 kb)

This artist's impression shows the ESA/NASA Ulysses spacecraft. Launched in 1990, the European-built spacecraft visits both polar regions once every 6.2 years as it circles the Sun in an orbit that is almost perpendicular to the ecliptic, the plane in which Earth and the planets move.

Credits: ESA

Back to article

Download:

HI-RES JPEG (Size: 695 kb)

HI RES TIFF (Size: 18 545 kb)

To reach its final polar orbit around the Sun, chosen in order to chart the heliosphere at all solar latitudes, Ulysses needed a gravitational pull from Jupiter. This gravity-assist manoeuvre took place on 8 February 1992.

Credits: ESA (image by D. Hardy)

More about...

Ulysses overview Ulysses operations

Ulysses at the North Pole Ulysses' mission extended Moving to the rhythm of the Sun

Song of the Sun Ulysses, fifteen years and going strong Solar magnetism: a simple or complex business?A piece of our Galaxy in our backyard Particles and comet tails...The 'Great Observatory'Ulysses: looking at the future