Solar Probe makes a second sun orbit and captures the solar wind in video

The Parker solar probe, launched last year, has just completed its second orbit around the Sun.

The results achieved by the mission have been very positive, said Dr. Nicky Fox, director of the heliophysics division at NASA headquarters, who said in a statement: "We are very happy. We managed to collect at least twice as much data as we initially thought from these first two passages of perihelion. "

Until now, the sensor has captured the first image of the sun's atmosphere and has also approached as close to the sun as possible. The information collected will allow us to better understand the extreme temperatures of the sun and its ejection of particles and plasma into space. "Flying near the Sun – a very dangerous environment – is the only way to get that data, and the spacecraft displays vibrant colors," said scientist Nour Raouafi of the Parker Solar Probe project in the same statement.

One of the instruments on board the probe, the Wide Field Imager for Solar Probe (WISPR) is an imaging instrument capable of capturing visible light images of solar phenomena such as winds. solar, shock and solar ejections. It consists of two telescopes that work together to capture images. And telescope data, collected during a period from 6 to 10 November 2018, have been transformed into a video:

In the video, the Sun came out of the frame to the left and you can see the solar winds flowing from left to right. In the center, on the left, is a luminous structure called streamer, a dense stream of solar wind coming from the equator of the sun. On the right side you can see a bright spot that is the planet Mercury, with the center of the Milky Way also located on the right. The white streaks that cross the image are dust particles that pass in front of the cameras while recording.

The next stage of the probe is another phase of perihelion, before making an overview of Venus that should take place at the end of December this year. This will give scientists more chances to collect new data on the Sun, the device using the gravity of Venus to control its flight path.