A solar probe took a direct hit from the Sun this weekend after it ended up in the line of fire of a coronal mass ejection, a type of massive plasma blast from our star, according to the European Space Agency (ESA). 

Launched in 2020, ESA's Solar Orbiter is the most complex laboratory ever sent to study the Sun, and will provide the first views of the star's poles when it arrives in its operational orbit. But on Sunday, the spacecraft experienced its Sun's raw power from afar when it was rocked by an energetic burst of charged particles that erupted from the star on Aug. 30.