NASA is all set to launch the world's first mission to the Sun next year. Named in honour of pioneering astrophysicist Eugene Parker, the Parker Solar Probe, about the size of a small car is loaded with technological breakthroughs that will solve several mysteries about our star.
The spacecraft will travel through the Sun's atmosphere, closer to the surface than any spacecraft before it, facing brutal heat and radiation conditions, providing the closest-ever observations of a star, to humanity. Instruments and the vehicle will be protected from the Sun's heat by a 4.5-inch thick carbon-composite shield. It will be launched during a 20-day window that opens on July 31, 2018, from NASA's Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. Professor at the University of Chicago, Parker said, “The solar probe is going to a region of space that has never been explored before. It is very exciting that we will finally get a look. One would like to have some more detailed measurements of what is going on in the solar wind. I am sure that there will be some surprises. There always are.”
He had proposed a number of number of concepts about how stars, including the Sun, give off energy. The scientist had predicted the existence of solar wind almost 60 years ago. He described an entire complex system of plasmas, magnetic fields and energetic particles that make up this phenomenon.
Project Scientist Nicola Fox, said, “Parker Solar Probe is going to answer questions about solar physics that we have puzzled over for more than six decades.”
