NASA prepares to send a probe to the sun, closer than ever before

NASA is preparing to send a probe closer to the Sun than any other spacecraft, having withstood the nasty heat by zooming through the solar corona to study this outermost part of the stellar atmosphere that gives birth to the solar wind

The Parker Solar Probe, a robotic spaceship the size of a small car, is expected to be launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, August 6 being the launch date of the planned mission seven years old. It is intended to fly within the Sun's crown within 3.8 million miles (6.1 million km) of the solar surface, seven times closer than any other spacecraft

"Sending a probe where you've never been is ambitious. Nicola Fox, a scientist from Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory project, said Friday at a press conference

that the previous closest pbad was a probe called Helios 2 which in 1976 came within 27 million miles (43 million km) .In comparison, the average distance from the Sun to the Earth is 150 million kilometers.

The crown gives birth to the solar wind , a continuous stream of charged particles that permeates the solar system Unpredictable solar winds cause disturbances in the magnetic field of our planet and can wreak havoc with Earth-based communication technology.Nasa hopes the results will allow scientists to predicting changes in the Earth's space environment.

"It is fundamental for us to be able to predict this spatial time just as we pr Let's make time here on Earth. scientist at Goddard Space Flight Center at NASA Maryland. "In the most extreme cases of these space weather events, it can actually affect our power grids here on Earth."

The project, with $ 1.5 billion (about 10,311 crores), is the first major mission NASA's Living With a Star program

The spacecraft will use seven Venus flyovers for nearly seven years to Gradually reduce its orbit around the Sun, using instruments designed to image the solar wind and study electric and magnetic fields. energy particles. NASA aims to collect data on the inner workings of the highly magnetized crown.

The probe, named after the American astrophysicist Eugene Newman Parker, will have to survive difficult heat and radiation conditions. It has been equipped with a heat shield designed to maintain its instruments at an acceptable temperature of 85 degrees Fahrenheit (29 degrees Celsius), even when the spacecraft is facing temperatures of up to 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit (1,370 degrees Fahrenheit). degrees Celsius)

© Thomson Reuters 2018

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