NASA's Parker Solar Space Probe has reached close to the Sun!
NASA's Parker Solar Probe, sent by NASA to study the Sun, will reach a very close distance to the Sun on Tuesday. According to NASA, the Parker Solar Probe has orbited the Sun a total of 21 times so far and is going to enter the closest region of the corona on December 24. This space probe will enter the corona region within 3.86 million miles of the Sun's surface at 6:40 a.m. local time on Tuesday, United States time.
Parker Solar Probe is currently moving towards the surface of the Sun at a speed of about 690,000 kilometers per hour or 191 kilometers per second. Which is about 0.064% of the speed of light and besides this, it is supposed to be the fastest object created by mankind. Apart from this space probe, no other object made by man has been able to reach this close to the surface of the Sun till date.
In fact, NASA scientists are trying to know the temperature of the Sun and its mysterious corona region and its many unknown secrets and new information by downloading the data collected by the ultra-high-tech sensors installed on this spacecraft. Which is considered a milestone achievement in space science and technological development.
Scientists have studied closely and found that although the surface temperature of the Sun is approximately 5,500-6,000 degrees Celsius, the temperature of its core can be incredibly equal to about 15 million degrees Celsius. Again, the temperature of the atmosphere or corona, which is a few thousand kilometers above the Sun, can be about 1 million degrees Celsius.
Even if it gets very close to the sun, it will likely encounter temperatures of about 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit. However, scientists have designed its heat shield to withstand temperatures of at least 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit. So, since it will fly by the sun at such a fast speed and in such a short time, scientists believe that this space probe will not be damaged at such temperatures. Moreover, it is actually protected by an 11.5-centimeter-thick carbon-composite shield.
According to researchers, the main reason for the intense heating of the sun's atmosphere or corona is the sun's own magnetic field. However, they have not yet been able to uncover the main secret of the sun's corona to such an intense temperature. And on August 12, 2018, the American space research agency 'NASA' launched a space mission named 'Parker Solar Probe' weighing 685 kg, in order to study the sun in depth.
At that time, the Parker Solar Probe will travel about 96% of the total distance from the Earth to the sun and pass near the corona region of the sun. Moreover, it will not be able to communicate with NASA's command center during this mission. Scientists believe that in addition to reaching close to the sun, it will also fly through the smoke of solar plasma. It may even enter the most active region of the sun.
And NASA will have to wait for the next three days to find out whether it survived the intense temperatures during this mission or melted. NASA has said that if the Parker Solar Probe survives this journey, it can send its images and collected data to NASA's command center at any time in January 2025. From which, scientists want to study the sun in more depth by collecting new information on the sun and its magnetic field, including other topics.
The Parker Solar Probe was designed and built by NASA in collaboration with the Applied Physics Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University. And the United States spent about 1.5 billion dollars to build it. Moreover, this spacecraft is named after Eugene Parker, a pioneering astrophysicist at the University of Chicago. He was the first to present the theory of the existence of the solar wind. He died in 2022 at the age of 94.
References: - NASA, Wikipedia, Space.com, NBC News. .
