NASA To Launch Mission To 'Touch The Sun'

NASA announced today that it is conducting history's first ever "mission to a star," sending the Parker Solar Probe into the sun's atmosphere. It will take place in the summer of 2018, and it will be within 4 million miles of the sun's surface.

“The solar probe is going to a region of space that has never been explored before,” said Eugene Parker, an astrophysicist and University of Chicago professor whom the probe is named after. “It’s very exciting that we’ll finally get a look. One would like to have some more detailed measurements of what’s going on in the solar wind. I’m sure that there will be some surprises. There always are.”

No other manmade object has faced the amount of heat and radiation this probe will be forced to endure. The researchers hope the spacecraft will be able to gather data and make new observations, potentially providing answers to questions that continue to perplex physicists. They also believe this could help improve predictions about sun-related phenomena that affect human life.

“Parker Solar Probe is going to answer questions about solar physics that we’ve puzzled over for more than six decades,” said Parker Solar Probe Project Scientist Nicola Fox of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. “It’s a spacecraft loaded with technological breakthroughs that will solve many of the largest mysteries about our star, including finding out why the sun’s corona is so much hotter than its surface. And we’re very proud to be able to carry Gene’s name with us on this amazing voyage of discovery.”

NASA expects to launch the probe after July 31, 2018.

Photo Credit: NASA/SDO