Our readers are Instagram users
You can now follow the latest news for free through our Instagram account
Click here to subscribe
A year from now, on December 24, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe will pass in front of the sun at an astonishing speed of 195 kilometers per second, or 435,000 miles per hour.
No man-made machine has ever moved so fast, 6.1 million kilometers, and no man-made machine has ever moved so close to the “surface” of the Sun.
“We’re actually about to land on a star,” says Parker project scientist Nour Raoufi.
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory scientist told BBC News: “This will be a huge achievement for all of humanity. This is equivalent to landing on the moon in 1969.”
Space: The search for life outside Earth
The Parker probe’s speed comes from the enormous gravitational force it feels as it falls toward the sun. The journey will be like traveling from New York to London in less than 30 seconds.
The US Space Agency’s Parker Solar Probe is one of the most daring missions ever.
The probe was launched in 2018, with the aim of making repeated and close passes of the sun.
The Parker maneuver, in late 2024, will cover only about 4 percent of the distance between the Sun and Earth (149 million kilometers).
Parker will face a great challenge to perform this maneuver, as at the point closest to the star in the probe’s orbit, the temperature at the front of the spacecraft may reach 1,400 degrees Celsius.
NSO/NSF/AURA High-resolution image of the Sun’s surface
Parker’s strategy is to get in and out quickly, making measurements of the solar environment using an array of instruments spread out behind a thick heat shield.
Researchers hope to gain a wealth of data and information about some key solar processes.
One of the most important goals is to obtain a clearer explanation of how the corona, which is the outer atmosphere of the Sun, works.
The temperature of the Sun at its optical surface is about 6000 degrees Celsius, but inside the corona it can reach a million degrees Celsius and more.
Also in the corona region, the outward flow of charged particles – electrons, protons and heavy ions – accelerates, suddenly becoming a supersonic wind moving at a speed of 400 km / s.
Scientists still can’t fully explain this either, but it is crucial to improving predictions of solar behavior and “space weather” phenomena.
The matter refers to powerful explosions of particles and magnetic fields from the sun, which can lead to the deterioration of communications on Earth and even destroy power grids, and radiation also poses health risks to astronauts.
SR HABBAL AND M DRUCKMÜLLE The Parker probe will settle in the corona, which can only be seen on Earth during a total solar eclipse.
Dr. Raoufi said: “This takes on a new dimension, especially since we are now thinking about sending women and men to the moon, and even establishing a permanent presence on the moon’s surface.”
Parker approached the sun on Friday. Three more flights are planned in 2024 before it orbits Venus on November 6 and attempts to cross its orbit, making December 24 a historic occasion.
NASA’s Chief Science Officer, Dr. Nikki Fox, was Parker’s principal scientist before taking on her current role.
Fox said that the main advantage of the flyby on December 24 will be the length of time the probe spent in the corona, which is much longer than any previous pass.
NASA/JHU-APL/NRL Parker has a camera to detect scattered light from particles in the sun’s corona
“We don’t know what we’ll find, but we’ll be looking for waves in the solar wind associated with warming and warming,” Fox told the BBC.
“I think we will sense a lot of different types of waves that may indicate a combination of processes that people have been arguing about for years,” she added.
Next year will be the culmination of Parker’s mission. It will not be able to approach the Sun after December, not only because its orbit will not allow it to approach Venus, but getting any closer would also risk shortening the shadow cast by Parker’s large shield, exposing the back of the vehicle. Satellite temperatures that it cannot tolerate.
