Behind howls of solar wind, quiet chirps reveal its origins

There's a wind that emanates from the sun, and it blows not like a soft whistle but like a hurricane's scream.

Made of electrons, protons, and heavier ions, the solar wind courses through the solar system at roughly 1 million miles per hour, barreling over everything in its path.

Yet through the wind's roar, NASA's Parker Solar Probe can hear small chirps, squeaks, and rustles that hint at the origins of this mysterious and ever-present wind. Now, the team at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, which designed, built, and manages the Parker Solar Probe for NASA, is getting their first chance to hear those sounds, too.

Continued...
Source

Credit: NASA/Naval Research Laboratory/Parker Solar Probe

"We are looking at the young solar wind being born around the sun," says Nour Raouafi, mission project scientist for the Parker Solar Probe. "And it's completely different from what we see here near Earth."

Source / Image Courtesy

Parker Solar Probe is scheduled to make another 21 orbits around the sun, using five flybys of Venus to propel itself increasingly closer to the star.