The spacecraft named ‘Parker Solar’ will be launched in 2021. He fulfilled his mission to “touch the sun”. He made a dive into the upper atmosphere of the sun.

So how did it survive temperatures of 1 million degrees? Is it really possible that he could do something like that without melting?

The sun’s upper atmosphere is above 1 million degrees.

The temperature of this layer is called ‘Corona’ hundreds of times higher than even the highest melting point of any metal.

The material of the solar probe is made of lightweight carbon foam, covered with a high-tech shield that stays cool very well. But even this shield can reach temperatures of 1 million degrees. It’s not strong enough to hold on.

We need to combine some physics here.

It is possible to obtain temperature (a property of matter) without heat (the process of energy transfer between two things with different temperatures)! The temperature depends on the heat source and the object being heated. Two substances with the same temperature It doesn’t always have to produce the same amount of heat.

For example, imagine that you are preparing a meal in the oven. It does not burn when you put your hand in the oven, but it does burn when you touch the metal or glass inside the oven because air, less dense than metal.

Now that we have the information, let’s get back to our main topic.

Particles in the sun’s corona are rare. Its density is almost less than that of the Earth’s atmosphere. 10 trillion times less. So when the spacecraft collides with a particle, it cannot cause heating to the melting temperature of the metal.

That’s why Parker Solar didn’t even get warmer than 1,400 degrees during its several-hour journey through the sun’s atmosphere. Even the interior of the vehicle up to 30 degrees it got cold. About the average summer temperature! Who knows, maybe one day we could travel to the sun with such a spacecraft…

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