NASA Parker Solar Probe Finally Kisses Sun’s Atmosphere For The First Time

NASA Enters the Solar Atmosphere for the First Time, Bringing New Discoveries

(Photo : NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Naval Research Laboratory) As Parker Solar Probe passed through the corona on encounter nine, the spacecraft flew by structures called coronal streamers. These structures can be seen as bright features moving upward in the upper images and angled downward in the lower row. Such a view is only possible because the spacecraft flew above and below the streamers inside the corona. Until now, streamers have only been seen from afar. They are visible from Earth during total solar eclipses.

For the first time, NASA revealed that the Parker Solar Probe had flown through the sun's top atmosphere, known as the corona. In January, the spacecraft will travel through the sun's corona once more.

According to The BBC, the spaceship travels at a breakneck speed of more than 320,000mph (500,000km/h). The plan is to go in and out quickly, with a suite of sensors deployed from behind a large heat shield to measure the solar environment.

NASA Parker Solar Spacecraft Hits the Sun to Gather Items

CNN said the NASA Solar Parker Probe gathered particle samples and studied the sun's magnetic field in the corona. The probe essentially "touched" the sun, giving scientists a better understanding of how Earth's parent star has developed and how it influences the Solar System in various ways.

NASA said the recent movement also helps scientists understand how stars in other parts of the cosmos function. The achievement was revealed at this year's American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, which took place on December 14. It was the finale of a three-year journey that saw NASA's Parker spacecraft orbit the sun closer and closer.

The investigation began in August 2018 onboard a Delta IV Heavy Rocket at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Behind SpaceX's Falcon Heavy, this rocket is the world's second-highest-capacity launch vehicle in service.

ALSO READ: NASA's Parker Solar Probe Bombarded by Plasma Explosions as It Gets Closer to the Sun; How's the Spacecraft Doing?

What NASA Parker Spacecraft Found

The probe's many near flybys, according to NASA, will lead to further findings that would be hard to make from a distance.

Switchbacks, which are magnetic zig-zag formations in the solar wind, are one of these findings. Scientists have never been able to figure out where these switchbacks originate from in the past. But, thanks to Parker, they were able to pinpoint their source: the sun's physical surface.

Other breakthroughs have led to a better knowledge of the solar cycle. That's because the sun's so-called "space weather" may have a direct impact on us here on Earth. The impact on the worldwide power system, satellites, airplanes, rockets, and GPS are all included.

History Of NASA Solar Parker Probe

Despite the fact that the Parker spacecraft was just launched three years ago, its concept dates back decades. The National Academy of Science-Space Science Board initially proposed it in a 1958 study.

Parker (named after Dr. Eugene Parker, the first to forecast the solar wind) is not only a solar probe, but it is also the fastest spacecraft in history. According to NASA, it attained a peak speed of 430,000 mph, which would allow it to travel from New York to Tokyo in less than a minute.

Phys.org said the Parker Solar Probe is part of NASA's Living with a Star program, which aims to learn more about the Sun-Earth system's effects on life and civilization. NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington oversees the Living with a Star program managed by the agency's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The Parker Solar Probe mission is managed by NASA's Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, which also planned, constructed, and controlled the spacecraft.