Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
Parker Solar Probe
It will be closer to the Sun than any other human object. “It will be a monumental feat for all of humanity.”
The North American space probe Parker Solar Probe will be on Tuesday at a distance from the Sun’s surface that will make it the closest human object to star of the Solar System.
to Space in August 2018, the probe will be on Christmas Eve six million kilometers from the surface of the Suna distance that will allow you to make unprecedented measurements close to the crownthe outermost layer of the solar atmosphere, which is hotter than the surface and from which energetic particles (called the solar wind) are ejected.
“You will be able to take unparalleled measurements of this region, unprecedented and which have the potential to transform our understanding of the Sun”, he stated, quoted by the Efe news agency, Christian Ferradasphysicist at the North American space agency (NASA), which operates the probe.
“We are basically about to land on a star”Nour Raouafi, an astrophysicist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and project scientist for the mission, told BBC News earlier this year. “It will be a monumental feat for all of humanity.”
Despite having a “very high temperature”, it “is very tenuous”, allowing the probe, protected with a thermal shield, “not to melt”, said Ferradas.
Until June 2025, the probe will make new approaches to the solar corona, at a speed that will make it the fastest human ingenuity.
Did you know? 🤔 The Parker Solar Probe moves at speeds up to 430,000 mph—fast enough to travel from New York to Tokyo in under a minute. 🚀 On Dec 24, the spacecraft will make its closest flyby of the Sun, taking its boldest plunge yet!
Learn more:
— Dr. Nicky Fox (@NASAScienceAA)
The Parker Solar Probe will get close enough to the Sun to, according to NASA, capture the variation in the speed of the solar wind and observe the birthplace of the highest energy solar particles.
Scientists want to understand how energy and heat circulate through the solar corona (composed of plasma, ionized gas formed at high temperatures) and study what accelerates the solar wind and energetic particles.
Justifying the importance of the mission, NASA highlights that Disturbances in the solar wind shake Earth’s magnetic fieldwhich protects the planet from solar radiation, and interfere with space weather, which can change the orbit of satellites, shorten their activity and alter the functioning of onboard electronic equipment and terrestrial communications, as well as put the survival of astronauts is in danger.
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe: Humanity’s First Touch of the Sun!
The fastest spacecraft ever launched by humanity, the Parker Solar Probe, is set to “touch the Sun” on December 24, 2024, coming within an astonishing 3.8 million miles (6.12 million kilometers) of its surface while…
— Karmay (@karmaycholera)
The probe pays homage in its name to the North American astrophysicist Eugene Parkerwho died in 2022 at age 94. In 2018, Parker attended the launch of the probe that aims to take a deeper look at the solar wind, a concept that the American created.
