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WASHINGTON-Nasa is preparing to send a probe closer to the Sun than any other spaceship, supporting the nasty heat while zooming in on the solar corona to study this outermost part of the stellar atmosphere that gives birth to the solar wind. 19659002] The Parker Solar Probe, a robotic spacecraft the size of a small car, is expected to be launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, August 6 being the launch date of the planned seven-year mission.
flying in 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. The sending in such brutal conditions is very ambitious, "said Nicola Fox, a project scientist from Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Lab, at a press conference held at the University of Toronto. 39, another day. The previous passage closest to the Sun was made by a probe called Helios 2, which arrived in 43 million km in 1976.
For comparison, the average distance from the Sun to the Earth is 93 million miles (150 million km)
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 disrupt the solar system. Earth. NASA hopes that the discoveries will enable scientists to predict changes in the Earth's space environment.
"It is fundamental for us to be able to predict this space time, just as we predict the weather here on Earth," said Alex Young. A scientist from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland
"In the most extreme cases of these space weather phenomena, it can affect our electrical networks on Earth."
The project, with a cost of $ 1.5 billion, is the first major mission of NASA's Living With a Star program.
The spacecraft should use seven Venus overflights for nearly seven years to gradually reduce its orbit around the Sun, using instruments designed to image the solar wind. magnetic fields, coronal plasma and energetic particles. NASA's goal is 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 was equipped with a heat shield designed to maintain its instruments at an acceptable level of 85 degrees Fahrenheit (29 degrees Celsius). as the spacecraft faces temperatures as high as 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit (1,370 degrees Celsius) as it passes.
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