A new NASA probe will be closer than ever to the sun

A spacecraft that can orbit the sun closer than any other probe has done before? With a surface temperature of 5500 degrees Celsius and a temperature of the outside atmosphere of more than a million degrees Celsius, the idea seems improbable.

Yet, according to a report released by NASA, his Parker Solar Probe will do it. Taking the direction of the sun in early August, the probe will explore the star at a closer distance than any other before. Over the next seven years, the spacecraft will move around the sun in its outdoor atmosphere until, finally, it is 6.2 million kilometers from its surface.

The low particle density of the sun's corona made the mission possible

Experts predict that the surface of the probe will heat up to about 1370 ° C orbiting the sun. should not exceed 30 degrees.

Despite the incredibly high temperatures of the sun's crown (its outermost atmosphere), the Parker Solar Probe's onboard meters are designed to remain functional at high temperatures and therefore, the hope is that the probe will able to provide scientists with important data. The reason this should be possible is the low particle density of the sun's crown: increasing the distance between particles in this area means that less thermal energy will be transferred to the probe.

"Think about the difference between putting your hand in a hot oven rather than putting it in a saucepan of boiling water (do not try it at home!) – in the oven, your hand can withstand much higher temperatures than in the water where it has to interact with many more particles, "said Susannah Darling, NASA's headquarters in Washington.

"Similarly, compared to the visible surface of the Sun, the corona is less dense, so that the spacecraft interacts with fewer hot particles and does not receive as much heat."

The Parker Solar Probe will also be protected against too high temperature rise by carbon heat shield, high melting temperature materials and white ceramic paint to deflect the temperature. solar radiation.

"We'll be right where all the interesting things happen"

With the Parker Solar Probe mission, NASA researchers hope to get important data to answer questions we do not have could answer before. For example, the measured data could provide information on why the atmosphere around the sun is warmer than on its actual surface. Research on the surrounding magnetic field could also provide important information about its solar wind.

"We are going to be right where everything is going on," said solar physicist Nicola Fox, in a report for the Nature International Journal of Science.

By 1958, researchers had developed the idea of ​​building a probe that would orbit the sun and record important measurement data. 60 years later and having developed new materials and technology, this idea can now be put into action for a better understanding of the universe.