The parker solar probe abbreviated psp.
Parker solar probe diagram.
12 2018 parker solar probe will provide new data on solar activity and make critical contributions to our ability to forecast major space weather events that impact life on earth.
Previously solar probe solar probe plus or solar probe is a nasa robotic spacecraft launched in 2018 with the mission of making observations of the outer corona of the sun.
A scientific mission to unlock the mysteries of the sun s corona and solar wind.
Parker solar probe launched towards the sun on august 12 2018.
The parker solar probe will then begin its first of 24 orbits around the sun with its first close approach or perihelion coming on nov.
What is parker solar probe.
Below the alfvén point the charged particles of the sun s atmosphere that make up the solar wind are no longer in contact with the direct surface of the.
31 and reached the closest.
The spacecraft started its first solar encounter phase oct.
It will approach to within 9 86 solar radii 6 9 million km or 4 3 million miles from the center of the sun and by 2025 will travel at closest approach as fast as 690 000 km h.
A diagram of nasa s parker solar probe.
On may 31 2017 nasa has renamed the solar probe plus spacecraft humanity s first mission to a star which will launch in 2018 as the parker solar probe in honor of astrophysicist eugene.
Nasa s first mission to go to the sun the parker solar probe is named after eugene parker who first theorized that the sun constantly sends out a flow of particles and energy called the solar wind.
It travels in an elongated orbit that passes close to the sun and sometimes passes near venus arranged such that venus nudges the orbit slightly in each pass to bring the probe s.
This orbit diagram shows parker solar probe s position in the solar system on nov.
A unique solar observatory that will orbit within 4 million miles of our star s surface to directly study the formation of the solar wind.
At its closest the probe will fly through the sun s corona within 3 8 million miles 6 1 million km of its surface.
Parker solar probe will swoop to within 4 million miles of the sun s surface facing heat and radiation like no spacecraft before it.