Ulyssses at Sun's South Pole

NASA reports the Ulysses spacecraft, a joint NASA-ESA venture, recently passed beneath the south pole of the sun on it’s way up to the sun’s north pole.  This is the third such pole-to-pole passage in the spacecraft’s 17 year history.

Ulysses is powered by an RTG built by Lockheed-Martin and provided to the mission by the US Department of Energy.  The RTG uses a Pu²³⁸ heat source and SiGe (silicon-germanium) thermocouples operating at about T_h=1000 ^oC and T_c=300 ^oC.

Gotta love those RTGs.