NASA hopes to launch the first spacecraft to "touch" the Sun in 1 month

NASA plans to launch humanity 's very first mission of touching the sun in a little over a month, and the spaceship involved has just been christened with the name of' '. a former student of Michigan State University. the launch of the Parker Space Probe – named after the living astrophysicist Eugene Parker – is scheduled for 4 am on August 4th. The launch window will open at 4 am and remain open for about an hour, according to NASA.

It is said that the spacecraft is about the size of a small car, and NASA says that it will attempt to travel in the atmosphere of the Sun, and that it will face "the heat and radiation unlike the spaceships of history. " Thomas Zurbuchen, Associate Administrator of NASA's Scientific Missions Directorate, said in a press release

"This mission will answer questions that scientists have sought to unveil for more than six decades." [QuantàcequelaNASApensequelasondespatialeParkerpourraitaccomplirl'agenceespèrequelamissionaideraàaméliorerlesfuturesprévisionsdesévénementsmétéorologiquesspatiauxquiaffectentnonseulementlaviesurTerremaisaussilessatelliteslesastronautesetlesstationsspatiales19659002] Parker's solar probe is said to travel so fast that its closest approach to the sun will come at an expected speed of 430,000 miles per hour. NASA points out that it's fast enough to travel between Washington DC and Tokyo in less than a minute. ute.

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"Parker Solar Probe, the size of a small car, will provide unpublished information about our Sun, where changing conditions can extend to the solar system to affect the Earth and d & # 39; Other worlds, "says NASA. "The spacecraft will fly directly into the atmosphere of the Sun where, at a safe distance of about 4 million miles from its surface, the spacecraft will track how energy and heat move in. the atmosphere of the Sun and explore what accelerates the solar wind and solar energy particles. "

Eugene Parker, the mission's homonym, earned his Bachelor of Science degree in physics from Michigan State University prior to his graduation. to obtain his doctorate at Caltech Zurbuchen pointed out that it was the first time that the US space agency named a spaceship for a living person.

In the 1950s, Parker was studying and proposing concepts on the way the stars and our Sun emitted energy. "He theorized an explanation of how the sun's crown is hotter than the surface of the star itself, which is a theory that NASA says that she continued to focus and study in what is called heliophysics.

"Parker Solar Probe is, literally, the fastest, hottest – and coolest – mission under the sun," said NASA scientist Nicola Fox in a press release. will reveal so much about our star and how it works that we have not been able to understand. "