Sunspot observatory helping NASA's solar probe

The sunspot observatory will be like an eye for the solar probe, McAteer said.

The probe performs readings of various features of the Sun – such as temperatures, particle density, and magnetic fields – but can not "see" what it looks like, he said.

"It's like one of those rotating sprinkler heads. Imagine that you only detect droplets of water in a certain part of your lawn, and that's all you've had. We will tell you what the sprinkler looks like, what the sprinkler does instead of the water droplets, "he said. "We will be able to say:" When this plasma came from the Sun, here is what (the Sun) looked like. ""

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The sunspot observatory will be the target of NASA's Parker solar probe from Friday morning to Sunday afternoon. (Photo: Photo File / Daily News)

The findings of Parker Solar Probe will help researchers improve their forecasts of weather events in the space, likely to damage satellites and astronauts in orbit, to disrupt radio communications and, in cases the most serious, overloading the power grid, according to a press release from NASA.

According to Han Uitenbroek, astronomer of the National Solar Observatory and scientist of Dunn's solar telescope program, the sunspot observatory will observe the areas of the sun's surface over which the probe should fly. The observations made by the telescope will be correlated to the readings taken by the probe that will fly over the same area a day later, he said.

The analysis of the two sets of data – such as the combination of information collected separately by the eyes and ears – will paint a more complete picture of the sun's operation, Uitenbroek said.

"The events we are seeing today will affect what the solar probe will see tomorrow, as it will take about a day for the variations in the magnetic field and the particles that flow along the magnetic fields to reach the Parker solar probe," he said. did he declare. "What we are trying to do is very exploratory in nature."

The solar observatory Sunspot Solar is participating in the mission because other telescopes in the world can not maneuver to watch where the probe will be, said McAteer.

"It's a complex task, because the connectivity between the Sun and the spot space traversed by the Parker solar probe is not just a straight line connection," he said. "We constantly use models to predict where it is."

The craft will perform 24 orbits around the Sun during its mission and the sunspot observatory will play a similar role each time the probe orbits the Sun, McAteer said.

The data will be shared with the global solar community after their acquisition, McAteer said.

"Anyone can pick him up," he said. "We are looking forward to seeing how many people want to use it."

Some of the most crucial measurements made by the probe concern the magnetic fields of the Sun and their influence on the speed and content of the solar wind.

Understanding the solar wind is of crucial importance to Earth, given the profound impact of solar meteorological phenomena, such as mass coronal ejections, on Earth.

A powerful geomagnetic storm struck the Earth in 1859 and created such a current in the telegraph lines that they began to vibrate and catch fire, Uitebroek said.

If such a geomagnetic storm occurred on Earth today, the results would be catastrophic: satellites and electrical systems would be submerged, which would destroy public services and all forms of communication.

According to NASA, a terrible solar storm missed the Earth by nine days in 2012.

The Parker Solar Probe has taken several steps since its launch in August.

Earlier this week, the probe exceeded the previous record of 26.55 million miles from the Sun's surface to become the closest synthetic object that could approach the star.

The findings of the Parker Solar Probe will help researchers improve their predictions of space weather events that can damage Earth's satellites and power grid. (Photo: Photo Courtesy / NASA)

The spacecraft has also become the fastest spacecraft ever to travel compared to the Sun, breaking the record 153,454 miles per hour set by Helios 2, a German-American spacecraft launched in 1976, according to the press release. The maximum speed of the probe will reach 430,000 miles per hour in 2024, the statement said.

The probe flies toward the Sun and will gain speed by taking advantage of planetary gravity to help its orbit around the Sun. The craft had its first gravitational assistance from Venus in early October, according to a NASA press release.

The Parker mission will last seven years and will result in an orbit that will lead the probe to less than 3.83 million kilometers from the Sun's surface, much closer to what was previously achieved, the press release said.

"The probe will face brutal heat and radiation conditions, while providing humanity with close-up observations of an unprecedented star and helping us understand the phenomena that have baffled scientists during decades, "the statement said. "These observations will add essential knowledge to NASA's efforts to understand the Sun, where changing conditions can be propagated in the solar system, affecting the Earth and other worlds."

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