Credits: NASA/Naval Research Laboratory/Parker Solar Probe
On Sept. 25, 2018, Parker Solar Probe captured a view of Earth as it sped toward the first Venus gravity assist of the mission. Earth is the bright, round object visible in the right side of the image.
The view from Parker Solar Probe's WISPR instrument on Sept. 25, 2018, shows Earth, the bright sphere near the middle of the right-hand panel. The elongated mark toward the bottom of the panel is a lens reflection from the WISPR instrument.
Parker Solar Probe will swoop to within 4 million miles of the sun's surface, facing heat and radiation like no spacecraft before it. Launching in 2018, Parker Solar Probe will provide new data on solar activity and make critical contributions to our ability to forecast major space-weather events that impact life on Earth.
In order to unlock the mysteries of the corona, but also to protect a society that is increasingly dependent on technology from the threats of space weather, NASA will send Parker Solar Probe to touch the Sun.
In 2017, the mission was renamed for Eugene Parker, the S. Chandrasekhar Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus, Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Chicago. In the 1950s, Parker proposed a number of concepts about how stars--including our Sun- -give off energy. He called this cascade of energy the solar wind, and he described an entire complex system of plasmas, magnetic fields, and energetic particles that make up this phenomenon.
Parker also theorized an explanation for the superheated solar atmosphere, the corona, which is - contrary to what was expected by physics laws -- hotter than the surface of the sun itself.
This is the first NASA mission that has been named for a living individual.
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe will be the first-ever mission to "touch" the sun. The spacecraft, about the size of a small car, will travel directly into the sun's atmosphere about 4 million miles from our star's surface.
Dragon wrote:Parker also theorized an explanation for the superheated solar atmosphere, the corona, which is - contrary to what was expected by physics laws -- hotter than the surface of the sun itself.
Amazing, you would have thought the sun's surface would have been hotter. Learn something new every day... thanks for sharing
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