NASA’s probe will try to “touch” the Sun in 2024
- December 30, 2023
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One year later, on December 24, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe mission will make the closest flyby ever to a star, passing by the Sun, flying just 6.1 million
One year later, on December 24, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe mission will make the closest flyby ever to a star, passing by the Sun, flying just 6.1 million kilometers from the Sun’s “surface.”
According to Ukrinform, this situation was reported by the BBC.
It is stated that the solar probe will pass by the Sun at an incredible speed of 195 km/s. Launched in 2018, Parker is designed to make repeated and increasingly closer passes by the Sun. The maneuver, planned for the end of next year, will allow the probe to travel a distance of only 4% of the Sun-Earth distance (149 million km).
At perihelion, the point of the orbit closest to the Sun, the temperature at the front of the spacecraft is likely to reach 1400°C. The mission strategy is to get in fast and get out fast, taking measurements of the solar environment with an array of instruments deployed through a thick heat shield.
Researchers hope that with the help of the probe they will obtain new information about some important solar processes. The most important of these is a clearer explanation of the working of the Sun’s corona (the star’s outer atmosphere). The temperature of the photosphere at the Sun’s surface is approximately 6000°C, but inside the corona this temperature can reach millions of degrees or more.
Additionally, the flow of charged particles (electrons, protons, and heavy ions) escaping inside the corona suddenly accelerates to a supersonic “wind” traveling at 400 km/h. Scientists still can’t fully explain this. However, this is crucial to improving predictions of the Sun’s behavior and the phenomenon of “space weather”. The latter belongs to the Sun’s powerful particle emissions and magnetic fields, which can disrupt communications on Earth and even disable electrical grids. Radiation also poses a health hazard to astronauts.
Parker Project Scientist Dr. “We are actually almost about to land on a star,” Noor Rauafi said.
“This will be a monumental achievement for all humanity. This is the equivalent of landing on the moon in 1969.” A scientist from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory told the publication.
As noted, Parker made one of its closest approaches to the Sun on Friday. Three more are planned in 2024 before entering Venus’ orbit on November 6 to change its orbit and make December 24 a historic event.
As reported by Ukrinform, the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter probe, a spacecraft intended to study the Sun, has detected emissions of very fast and powerful jets of matter in the upper layer of the Sun’s atmosphere.
Photo: NASA-JHU-APL/NSO/NSF/AURA
Source: Ukrinform
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