NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Completes a Record-Setting Swing by the Sun
Blazing along at space-record speeds that would get it from Earth to the Moon in under an hour, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe completed its 10th…
Parker Solar Probe
Hypervelocity Dust Impacts on a Spacecraft Produce Plasma Explosions and Debris Clouds
New results reveal how plasma explosions and clouds of debris can disturb spacecraft operations in the aftermath of hypervelocity dust impacts. The Parker Solar Probe…
A “Living Catalog” of Solar Stream Interactions
When a fast solar wind stream erupts from a coronal hole (a cooler region in the Sun’s atmosphere) and overtakes a slower moving solar wind…
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Discovers Radio Signal in Venus’ Atmosphere
During a brief swing by Venus, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe detected a natural radio signal that revealed the spacecraft had flown through the planet’s upper…
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Delivers 1st Complete View of Venus’ Orbital Dust Ring
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe mission has given scientists the first complete look at Venus’ orbital dust ring, a collection of microscopic dust particles that circulates…
Switchbacks Science: Explaining NASA’s Parker Solar Probe’s Mysterious Magnetic Puzzle
When NASA’s Parker Solar Probe sent back the first observations from its voyage to the Sun, scientists found signs of a wild ocean of currents…
Celestial Geometry Posed a Special Opportunity During Parker Solar Probe’s 7th Solar Encounter
During Parker Solar Probe’s seventh swing by the Sun, culminating in its closest solar approach, or perihelion, on January 17, 2021, celestial geometry posed a…
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Captures Stunning View of Venus
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe captured stunning views of Venus during its close flyby of the planet in July 2020. Though Parker Solar Probe’s focus is…
Two Spacecraft Designed to Study the Sun Also Got Some Recent Peeks at Earth and Other Planets
Looking Around the Neighborhood Though they focus on the star at the center of our solar system, some Sun-watching spacecraft recently captured unique views of…
A New View of Small Sun Structures Allows NASA to Explore the Solar Wind Like Never Before
Scientists have combined NASA data and cutting-edge image processing to gain new insight into the solar structures that create the Sun’s flow of high-speed solar…
A Small, Bright Surprise: Two Views of a Sungrazing Comet
When scientists downlinked data from Parker Solar Probe’s sixth orbit, there was a small, bright surprise waiting for them: the spacecraft’s first observation of a…
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Teams Up With Observatories Around Solar System
At the heart of understanding our space environment is the knowledge that conditions throughout space — from the Sun to the atmospheres of planets to…
Unmatched View: Newly-Discovered Comet NEOWISE Spied by NASA’s Parker Solar Probe
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe was at the right place at the right time to capture a unique view of comet NEOWISE on July 5, 2020….
Possible Explanation for the Origin of Switchbacks Observed by Parker Solar Probe in the Sun’s Magnetic Field
New analysis published April 29, 2020, in the Astrophysical Journal Letters provides a possible explanation for the origin of switchbacks — sudden reversals in the…
Parker Solar Probe’s First Discoveries: Strange Phenomena in Space Weather, Solar Wind
NASA mission named for pioneering University of Chicago scientist produces landmark research. Last summer, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe split the predawn skies in a blaze…
Outbursts of Highly Energetic Particles Detected on Closest-Ever Flyby of the Sun
New data from the first two orbits by NASA’s Parker Solar Probe. Outbursts of energetic particles that hurtle out from the sun and can disrupt…
New Evidence of Origins of Solar Wind From Closest-Ever Approach to the Sun
The Parker Solar Probe spacecraft, which has flown closer to the Sun than any mission before, has found new evidence of the origins of the…
5 Astonishing New Discoveries From NASA’s Parker Solar Probe [Video]
In August 2018, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe launched to space, soon becoming the closest-ever spacecraft to the Sun. With cutting-edge scientific instruments to measure the…