It's a million miles away, cost $1 billion, and for more than two years has surveyed the sun with spectacular results. This cosmic overachiever--about the size of a Volkswagen beetle--is the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, otherwise known as SOHO. Since April 1996 it has beamed back hundreds of thousands of remarkable images of solar eruptions and made dozens of scientific discoveries. It has also enhanced the ability of astronomers to predict and spot the powerful solar storms that produce auroras and cause power disruptions on Earth--as well as endanger satellites and astronauts in space.
Then, in late June, SOHO inexplicably fell...
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