Viewing solar mysteries from space

Abstract

The solar atmosphere presents a rich tapestry, providing astrophysics with new, unexpected designs of great intricacy. And for millennia we have based our views of the Sun (and the universe) in the narrow visual window of the electromagnetic spectrum. Over the last fifty years or so, this has been extended to the radio, ultraviolet, X-ray, gamma-ray and other parts of the spectrum. This article presents solar mysteries viewed from major space programmes in the past and future space missions underway to unravel these mysteries.