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For a little NASA spacecraft, the weather outside is frightful. The Parker Solar Probe is on a mission toward the sun. The spacecraft has been exposed to scorching temperatures and intense sunlight as it draws closer with every loop around. Eventually, Parker will glide through the star’s outer atmosphere and feel the toastiness of nearly 2 million degrees Fahrenheit (more than 1 million degrees Celsius). Parker is dressed appropriately for the journey. It wears a thick, custom-made shield to protect its scientific instruments and systems, and tubes with flowing water to cool itself down. Inside, it is a cozy 78...

Details regarding the incoming space rock have been collected by NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS). The agency noted that the asteroid, which has been identified as 2019 WW, is currently flying across space towards Earth at an average speed of almost 22,000 miles per hour. According to CNEOS, the asteroid has an estimated diameter of 236 feet, making it longer than the wingspan of a Boeing 747 plane. 2019 WW has been labeled as an Apollo asteroid due to its natural orbit. Like other Apollo asteroids, 2019 WW follows a wide orbit around the Sun and the Earth....

Outbursts of energetic particles that hurtle out from the sun and can disrupt space communications may be even more varied and numerous than previously thought, according to results from the closest-ever flyby of the sun. The finding that these energetic particle events are more varied and numerous than previously known was one of several discoveries made by the instrument suite known as the Integrated Science Investigation of the Sun (ISOIS), a project led by Princeton University that involves multiple institutions as well as NASA. ISOIS seeks to find out how the particles become so fast moving, and what is pushing...

Those who can remember a half century back will recall these words, spoken by Captain James Kirk of the starship Enterprise at the beginning of each episode of Star Trek: “Space—the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission—to explore strange new worlds—to seek out new life and new civilizations—to boldly go where no man has gone before.” Although the original series lasted only three years and 79 episodes, it spawned follow-on series and has become a cult classic. But this essay is not about classic science fiction, the starship Enterprise, or Captain Kirk. Yet...

The Parker Solar Probe is the size of a small car and named for Prof. Eugene Parker, a 90-year-old American astrophysicist who in 1958 discovered the solar wind. It’s the first time that NASA has named a spacecraft after a living person. The Parker probe... will make a beeline for Venus for the first of seven flybys. Each gravity assist will slow the craft down and reshape its orbit (see below), so it later can pass extremely close to the Sun. The first flyby is slated for late September. ...NASA typically will fly by a planet to increase the spacecraft’s speed...