A spacecraft is about to fly into the Sun’s atmosphere for the first time

Almost no one has written about Parker Solar Probe again.

Of course, the ship got attention when it started. In fact, it is the fastest thing that people have ever made. At its maximum speed, driven by the sun’s gravity, the spacecraft reaches a speed of 430,000 kilometers per hour, or more than one-sixth of one percent of the speed of light. This speed can get you from New York City to Tokyo in less than a minute.

And the Parker Solar Probe also has the honor of being NASA’s first manned spacecraft. At the time of its launch, in August 2018, scientist Eugene Parker was 91 years old.

But in the six years since the probe has been through space and flying by the sun? Not so much. Let’s face it, the solar system and its complex structure are not things that most people think about on a daily basis.

However, the small device—usually two times larger, and its scientific mission is only 50 kilograms—is about to turn the stars. To be honest. At Christmas, the Parker Solar Probe will make its closest approach to the sun. It will reach a distance of 3.8 million kilometers (6.1 million miles) from space, flying through the solar system for the first time.

Yeah, it’s going to be hot. Scientists estimate that this device can prevent temperatures of 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit (1,371 C) on Christmas Day, which is very different from the North Pole.

Going Straight to the Source

I spoke to NASA’s chief science officer, Nicky Fox, to find out why this research is being abused. Before moving to NASA headquarters, Fox was a project scientist for the Parker Solar Probe, and explained that scientists really wanted to understand where the solar wind came from.

This is a mass of small molecules that produce the same amount of nutrients as the sun. Scientists have been puzzling over this mystery for more than half a century, Fox explained.

“In short, we want to find where the solar wind was born,” he said.

Back in the 1950s, before we had satellites or airplanes to measure the sun, Parker predicted the existence of this solar wind. Scientists were very skeptical of this idea – many scoffed at Parker, until the Mariner 2 mission began measuring the solar wind in 1962.

When scientists began to accept Parker’s theory, they wanted to know more about the solar wind, which is the most important component of all planets. Although the solar wind is invisible to the naked eye, when you see the aurora on Earth, it is the solar wind that interacts with the Earth’s magnetosphere in a particularly violent way.