Browsing: Parker Solar Probe

The Parker Solar Probe, named after the solar physicist Eugene Parker, is a NASA spacecraft launched in August 2018 with the mission to study the Sun more closely than any previous spacecraft. Designed to plunge through the Sun’s extreme outer atmosphere, or corona, the probe aims to gather data on the mechanisms that heat the corona and accelerate the solar wind, a stream of charged particles that affects Earth and the entire solar system. By enduring extreme heat and radiation, the Parker Solar Probe utilizes a combination of thermal shielding and innovative cooling systems to survive its close passes to the Sun, coming within 4 million miles of the solar surface. Its observations and measurements provide valuable insights into solar activity and help improve forecasts of space weather events that can impact life on Earth and satellite operations in space.