Posted on 12/20/2024 9:44:01 AM PST by Red Badger
The Parker Solar Probe is on an ambitious mission to study the origins of the solar wind – the constant stream of charged particles flowing outward from the sun. Despite over half a century of scientific investigation since its discovery in the 1960s, the phenomenon's precise source within the corona remains unknown.
We're just days away from the Parker Solar Probe making its closest approach yet to the sun. The little spacecraft will barrel through the sun's outer atmosphere on Christmas Eve, passing within just 3.8 million miles of the surface below.
That may sound like a significant distance, but for a red-hot celestial ball with a diameter of 865,370 miles, this is the closest we'll have ever been. In fact, the probe will go right through the solar corona, which is the super-heated atmosphere extending millions of miles from the sun's visible surface. Because of this, the probe will endure extremes few things on Earth do, with NASA estimating its heat shield will experience temperatures exceeding 2,500°F.
Nicky Fox, who formerly served as the probe's project scientist before becoming NASA's Chief Scientist, explained to Ars Technica that the core objective is to pinpoint the birthplace of solar winds.
To unlock that mystery, there's no substitute for actually venturing into the sun's outer atmosphere to take measurements. But as Fox noted, that's an immense engineering challenge because the sun is, quite literally, on fire.
The probe had to be meticulously designed to endure the extreme heat and radiation of the corona, only to rapidly cycle back into the cold vacuum of space on its elliptical orbits around the sun. Fox elaborated that careful material selection was crucial, requiring lightweight yet durable components that could withstand drastic temperature shifts without becoming brittle or exhibiting changing properties.
Exotic metal alloys like titanium-zirconium-molybdenum with melting points over 4,200°F were used for sensors exposed to the sun's intensity. Even the wiring, which was built using niobium, needed special sapphire crystal insulation to prevent it from melting. It took years of planning and technological breakthroughs to build a spacecraft capable enough.
Appropriately, the probe honors the physicist Eugene Parker, who originally predicted the existence of the solar wind back in the 1950s. This theory initially met with widespread skepticism, that is until observations from 1962's Mariner 2 spacecraft confirmed it.
Now over six years into its mission, the Parker Solar Probe is gearing up to provide our most extreme glimpse yet into the sun's atmosphere and the origins of this fundamental solar phenomenon.
Despite incredible achievements like becoming the fastest human-made object at over 430,000 mph, the probe hasn't gotten much mainstream attention lately. But that may change after this record-close encounter and the new scientific insights it might bring.
Image credit: NASA
when are they going to send a probe to Uranus?
Yes............
If bidet is on it he is planning on a landing at night.
Gee. I wonder if NASA will find out the the sun has something to do with the changing of climate?
They seem to blame it on everything but changes in the sun’s activity.
When *wasn’t* there. LOL... there was the NG episode (geek meters are going crazy at LLL) where an alien scientist had developed a shield that made trips through stars possible, and that was revisited in one of those “just let her do it maybe that will shut her up” episodes where the ‘real’ doctor used the method to elude destruction by some alien ne’er-do-wells.
And, when Worf was serving on his brother’s Bird of Prey during the Klingon civil war, they splashed another Klingon ship by leading the other captain too far into the gravity well. No idea why anyone would fall for that, probably just a production ruse to build a cool special effect scene. :^)
The real danger is the Tox Uthat quantum phase inhibitor, that should only be tested in other stars.
Maybe they did, but who’s going to talk about that in public, unless they’re in showbiz?
Alien archaeologists have studied this progression of civilization many times: Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Internet Porn Age, and then they put their sun out. We’re there.
Oh yeah, and one of the few worthwhile DS9 episodes, 2.9, “Second Sight” ends with a swan dive into a star.
LOL
It’s hotter outside around the Sun than it is inside the Sun ?
Flying money into the sun.
possible finding: The core has gone out, choked off by dark matter, will nova in 5 million years.
Will it take a picture of the flag our astronauts left behind?
asking for a congresswoman
“Looks like a fish, moves like a fish, steers like a cow!”
I, for one, plan on being out of town that day.
The crew could wear sunscreen in the day time.
Jethro Tull, Stand Up, good album. Trying to get close to the Sun? Nothing’s Easy.
I think Buster Poindexter had that song back in the late “80s or early ‘90s, “Hot, Hot, Hot!”
Better than Ukraine................
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Johansen
I have a New York Dolls album........The band members dressed up as NYC Prostitutes..........
He’s also a pretty damn good actor..........
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.