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Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/NAVAL Research Lab
NASA’s NASA NASA Sun Sound is not unknown to breaking records.
On December 24, 2024, Parker made a story, flying closer to the sun than any spacecraft in history. The probe reached a distance of only 3.8 million miles (6.1 million kilometers) from the sunny surface, entering the most outer layer of the solar atmosphere known as a crown. During this flying, it also reaches a maximum speed of 430,000 miles per hour (690,000 kilometers per hour), breaking its own record as the fastest object so far created by man.
Now NASA has released a remarkable video shot during the historic Flyby, offering the closest views of the sun ever recorded. The new images were filmed with a wide Parker field for a solar probe or WISPR, revealing never a view on the crown and the sun’s sunny winds shortly after being released from the crown.
Still from a video made by Parker’s NASA solar probe during its shortest fly to the sun once on December 24, 2024 | Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/NAVAL Research Lab
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“Parker’s solar probe again transports us to the dynamic atmosphere of our closest star,” says Niki Fox, an associate administrator of the Scientific Mission Directorate at NASA headquarters in Washington, in a statement accompanying the images. “We are witnessing the place where threats of space time for Earth, with our eyes, not just with models, will help us significantly improve our space predictions to ensure the safety of our astronauts and the protection of our technology here on Earth and throughout the solar system.”
The images of WISPR have revealed an important border in the atmosphere of the sun called Heliospheric Current Liff, where the magnetic field of the sun changes direction from north to south. It also conquered for the first time with high resolution, collisions between multiple coronal masses (CME) disposal, which are the main engines of space time and are important for understanding the risks to astronauts and technologies of the Earth, such as energy networks and communication satellites.
“In these images, we see CMES mainly pile up on top of one another,” says Angelos Vurlidas, a scientist with a WISPR tool at the John Hopkins Physics Laboratory, which designs, builds and controls the spacecraft in Laurel, Maryland. “We use this to understand how CME merge together.”
Prior to the Parker’s solar probe, NASA and its international partners can only study sun wind from afar, which is why the spacecraft plays an important role in closing key gaps in knowledge. It identifies the widespread presence of “switches”-a zig-staggering models of magnetic fields about 14.7 million miles from the sun and connects them to the origin of one of the two main types of sunny wind.
Closer, only 8 million miles, Parker discovered that the border of the sun’s crown was far more profitable and complex than thought earlier.
But it remains to be discovered.
The NASA Parker solar probe launched on August 12, 2018 on the Sun study mission. | Credit: NASA/John Hopkins APL/Steve Grubben
“The big unknown is: How is the solar wind generate and how does it manage to escape from the huge gravitational pull of the sun?” Nour Rawafi said, a Parker solar probe scientist at John Hopkins’ Applied Physics Laboratory. “Understanding this continuous flow of particles, especially the slow sunny wind, is a major challenge, especially given the variety in the properties of these streams – but with the solar probe of Parker, we are closer than ever to discover our origin and how they develop.”
Before the Parker solar probe, distant observations suggest that there are actually two varieties of slow sunny wind, distinguished by the orientation or variability of their magnetic fields. A kind of slow sunny wind called Alfvénic has small switches. The second type, called a non -alphew, does not show these variations in its magnetic field.
As it stopped closer to the sun, the Parker solar probe confirmed that there were indeed two types of sunny wind. His views closely also help scientists distinguish the origin of the two species, which scientists believe are unique. A non-alfreed-not-alfenum wind can come out of functions called stitch-stitches, connecting active regions, where some particles can be heated enough to escape the Alfvénic wind can occur near coronal holes or dark, cool regions.
“We do not have a final consensus yet, but we have a lot of new intriguing data,” says Adam Szabo, a scientist for a Parker sun probe mission at NASA’s Greenbelt Greenbelt, Maryland Space Center.
A heavy rocket of United Launch Alliance Delta IV launches the NASA solar probe on August 12, 2018 from the start complex 37 of the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. | Credit: Bill Ingles/NASA
Parker’s solar probe is built to withstand extreme conditions – from the freezing cold from deep space to intense heat near the sun. A key factor in survival is the difference between temperature and heat. While the space near the sun can reach temperatures of several million degrees, it does not necessarily mean that there is a lot of heat. This is because the crown of the sun is extremely thin, which means there are less particles. Although the individual particles in the crown are incredibly hot, there are not many. Therefore, the probe does not receive much heat.
“While the Parker Sun probe will travel through space with temperatures of several million degrees, the surface of [its] The heat shield that is facing the sun will only heat up to about 2500 degrees Fahrenheit (about 1400 degrees Celsius), “Write NASA scientists.
These temperatures, of course, are still incredibly hot, which makes its heat shield, the thermal protection system (TPS). The shield is made of carbon composite foam pressed between two carbon plates. Carbon is ideal for this purpose as it is both lightweight and capable of withstanding extremely high temperatures without melting.
“Tested to withstand up to 3000 degrees Fahrenheit (1650 degrees Celsius), TP can handle any heat that the sun can send its way while maintaining almost all instruments to safety,” NASA explained.
Its structure allows it to withstand intense heat while minimizing the weight, which makes it crucial to a spacecraft that has to travel at exceptional speeds. The outer surface of TPS is also covered with white ceramic paint, which helps to reflect as much solar energy as possible and further reduces the amount of absorbed heat.