What's Directly Above And Below The Sun?

Spacecraft have reached Mars, Saturn, Pluto, and even the edge of interstellar space. But there is one direction we have barely explored: straight above and below the Sun. This video explains why escaping vertically from the solar system is far harder than it sounds. Earth already moves around the Sun at about 67,000 mph, and every spacecraft we launch inherits that sideways motion. To go directly “up” out of the ecliptic plane, a probe must fight that orbital velocity a problem that makes reaching a point above the Sun more difficult than flying to Pluto. We explore the mystery of the Sun’s poles, the Ulysses mission, Solar Orbiter’s first images of the solar south pole, the strange shape of the heliosphere, and why scientists are considering extreme mission concepts like solar sails and the solar Oberth maneuver. To climb above the Sun, a spacecraft may first need to fall toward it. Would you choose the slow solar sail approach, or the violent Oberth dive? -- DISCUSSIONS & SOCIAL MEDIA Commercial Purposes: [email protected] Tik Tok:   / insanecuriosity   Reddit:   / insanecuriosity   Instagram:   / insanecuriositythereal   Twitter:   / insanecurio   Facebook:   / insanecuriosity   Linkedin:   / insane-curiosity-46b928277   Our Website: https://insanecuriosity.com/ -- Credits: Ron Miller, Mark A. Garlick / MarkGarlick.com ,Elon Musk/SpaceX/ Flickr https://app.envato.com/music / https://artlist.io/ -- 0:00 — The Direction We Still Can’t Reach 0:45 — Why “Straight Up” Is Almost Impossible 2:05 — The 30 km/s Wall 3:30 — The Sun’s Poles Are Still a Frontier 4:35 — Ulysses: The First Polar Detour 5:35 — The First Real Images of the Sun’s South Pole 6:30 — We Don’t Know the Shape of Our Own Bubble 7:35 — The “Deflated Croissant” Model 9:00 — To Climb, You Must First Fall 9:55 — The Solar Oberth Maneuver 10:50 — Solar Sails and the Patient Way Up 11:30 — What We Would See From Above 12:35 — Solar Sail or Oberth Dive? #insanecuriosity #thesun #solarorbiter