Solar Heliospheric Observatory - predicting space weather with the potential to negatively impact Earth

SOHO (the SOlar Heliospheric Observatory) is ESAs space-based observatory, 1.5 million kilometers from the Earth, which is viewing and investigating the Sun from its deep core, through its outer atmosphere - the corona. SOHO moves around the Sun in step with the Earth, slowly orbiting in a position known as the ‘first Lagrange point’, where it gets an uninterrupted view of our star, providing insights into its nature and behavior, and providing scientists with images and data to help them predict bad space weather with the potential to negatively impact our own planet. One big part of this is understanding the origin of the solar wind, a stream of highly charged gas that blows continuously outward through the Solar System.