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Next month, NASA will launch a new pioneering mission to the center of our solar system. The Solar Parker Probe will venture on our Sun and become the first spacecraft to enter its orbit, all is well. And a pretty important part of this plan is the advanced heat shield now installed by NASA engineers, which will protect the probe from the intense heat by getting closer to the Sun more than any spacecraft before it.
This advanced thermal screen goes straight to the heart of the success of the mission. Scientists have been intrigued by the mechanisms of the Sun and the solar winds it has been emitting for decades, since the astrophysicist Eugene Parker first described what he thought was the matter and the high-speed magnetism emanating from the star almost 60 years ago.
We now know that these high velocity currents of subatomic particles and magnetic fields rise to the outside of the Sun and influence the planets composing our solar system. On Mars, they were found slowly stripping its atmosphere, atom by atom. On Earth, they collide with our own magnetic field and cause geomagnetic storms, trigger polar auroras and even interfere with GPS signals.
For so long, traveling to the birthplace of these solar winds was a business that was just too hot to handle. This would mean traveling through the Sun's atmosphere, known as the corona, to meet temperatures of about 1,500 ° F (1572 ° C), an inhospitable environment for the most intrepid space probes.
The 160-lb (72-kg) heat shield that now makes this possible is the result of recent advances in thermal engineering. It includes two super-heated carbon-carbon composite panels, with a 4.5-inch thick carbon foam plate (11.5 cm) in between. The panel facing the sun is also sprayed with a special white coating to bounce its energy. Overall, the eight-foot-wide (2.5-m) shield will keep the probe and its instruments cool at 29.5 ° C (85 ° F) during operations.
This activity will involve orbiting the Sun nearly 6.27 million kilometers from its surface and will pass through the birthplace of the most energetic solar particles, where solar winds shift from subsonic to supersonic speeds. The onboard instruments are designed to image the solar wind and study magnetic fields, plasma and energetic particles.
The results of the Solar Parker Probe will tell us more about how energy and heat make their way through the Sun 's atmosphere. In return, this could bring a new understanding of other stars in the universe and perhaps even the evolution of life on Earth.
With the shield now permanently attached to the probe, engineers have tested and evaluated it for launch next month.
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