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The Parker solar probe has just met the neighbors.
The mission of NASA "touch the sun" becomes closer still towards its solar destination, completing its first Venus gravimetric assistance in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
The Parker probe took off from Earth on August 12 as part of a mission to better understand the solar wind and the sun's atmosphere, called the crown. But to get close enough to study the fiery plasma that surrounds the sun, the probe must adjust its trajectory – and this is where Venus enters the scene.
By conducting a sling around its nearest planetary neighbor, the Parker probe will narrow its orbit around the sun, being less than 6.16 million kilometers from the star, which is closer to the sun than anything else. object made by the man.
This conception of the Parker mission shows how the spacecraft will approach the sun with each gravitational assistance of Venus.
Laboratory of Applied Physics at Johns Hopkins University / NASA
During a 6-year, 11-month mission, the spacecraft will conduct a total of seven overflights per Venus gravimetric assistance and will carry out a solar orbit 24 times, getting closer to each sling (with a advanced heat shield helping to protect him on the way).
Meanwhile, according to NASA, "the spacecraft will get close enough to the sun to observe the speed of the solar wind shift from subsonic to supersonic, and it will pass through the birthplace of solar particles of the highest energy."
The purpose of the mission? The Parker Probe will allow scientists to better understand the solar corona warming and the origins of the solar wind to better understand space weather phenomena, which can harm astronauts in space and even have impacts on Earth (such as hitting the electricity network).
Parker's solar probe will reach its first perihelion (the point where the spacecraft is closest to the sun in its orbit) on November 5 at 22:27. AND. Set your watches!
Look at this:
NASA's Parker Probe: everything you need from …
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NASA is 60 years old: the space agency has pushed humanity further than anyone and plans to go further.
Take it to the extreme: mix crazy situations – eruptive volcanic eruptions, nuclear collapses, 30-foot waves – with everyday technologies. This is what happens.
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