NASA probe is about to make an unprecedented approach to the Sun

THE Parker solar probe from NASA, is about to make a record flyby, reaching 6.1 million kilometers from the surface of the Sun, the humanity’s closest approach to a star . The event is scheduled to take place at around 8:50 am this Tuesday (24).

The unmanned spacecraft will fly at 692,000 kilometers per hour, fast enough to get from Washington to Tokyo in less than a minute, according to NASA. The flyby will make the probe the fastest man-made object in history, according to information shared by the space agency on December 17 during a NASA Science Live presentation on YouTube.

The mission comes soonstopping for this historic milestone since its launch on August 12, 2018 — an event attended by the probe’s namesake, Eugene Parker, a pioneering astrophysicist in the solar research field of heliophysics.

Parker was the first living person to have a spacecraft named after him. The astrophysicist, whose research revolutionized humanity’s understanding of the Sun and interplanetary space, died at age 94 in March 2022. But he was still able to witness how spacecraft could help solve mysteries about the Sun over 65 years ago. after the mission was originally conceived.

The probe became the first spacecraft to “touch the Sun” when it successfully flew close to the solar corona, or upper atmosphere, to collect samples of particles and magnetic fields.ethics of our star in December 2021.

For the last six years of the spacecraft’s seven-year mission, the Parker solar probe has collected data to enlighten scientists about some of the Sun’s greatest mysteries.

Heliophysicists have long wondered how the solar wind—a constant stream of particles released by the Sun—is generated, as well as why the solar corona is so much hotter than its surface.

Scientists also want to understand how coronal mass ejections, or large clouds of ionized gas called plasma, and the magnetic fields that erupt from the Sun’s outer atmosphere are structured.

When these ejections are aimed at Earth, they can cause geomagnetic storms or large disturbances in the planet’s magnetic field, which can affect satellites as well as energy and communications infrastructure on Earth.

Now, it’s time for Parker’s latest and closest flybys, which could complete the answers to these lingering questions and reveal new mysteries as he explores uncharted solar territories.

“The Parker solar probe is changing the field of heliophysics,” said Helene Winters, probe project manager at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.

“After years of braving the heat and dust of the inner solar system, receiving blasts of solar energy and radiation that no spacecraft has ever seen, the Parker Solar Probe continues to thrive.”

An incredibly close flyby of a blazing star

THE flyover of Parker at around 8:53 am (Brasília time) on Christmas Eve will be the first of the spacecraft’s last three closest approaches, with the two others scheduled to take place on March 22nd and June 19th .

The spacecraft will be so close that, if the distance between the Earth and the Sun were the length of an American football field, the spacecraft would be about 3.5 meters from the end zone (final line before the end of the field), so agreement with NASA.

At this proximity, the probe will be able to fly in plasma plumes, as well as within a solar flare, should one be released by the Sun.

The spacecraft was built to withstand the extremes of the Sun and has experienced coronal mass ejections in the past without any impact on the vehicle, said Parker solar probe project scientist Nour Rawafi.

The spacecraft is equipped with a carbon foam shield 11.4 centimeters thick and 2.4 meters wide. On Earth, before launch, the shield was tested and is capable of withstanding temperatures close to 1,400ºC. On Christmas Eve, the shield can face temperatures of up to 980ºC.

Meanwhile, the interior of the spacecraft will be at a comfortable ambient temperature so that electronic systems and scientific instruments can operate as expected. A unique cooling system designed by the applied physics laboratory pumps water through the ship’s solar panels to keep them at a constant temperature of 160ºC, even during close approaches to the Sun.

The spacecraft will perform its flyby autonomously because mission control will be out of contact with the probe due to its proximity to the Sun.

After the closest approach to the Sun, expected to occur around midnight from Thursday (25) to Friday (26), Parker will send a signal called headlight tone to mission control to confirm the success of the flyover said Rawafi.

THE Beacon tone is limited data that conveys the general state of the spacecraft he said.

The immense set of data and images collected during the flyby will not be available to mission control until Parker moves away from the Sun’s orbit, which will occur about three weeks later in mid-January, Rawafi explained.

Perfect time to see an active sun

Just over a year after the launch of the Parker solar probe, the Sun entered a new solar cycle. Now, as Parker makes its closest approach, the Sun is experiencing solar maximum, which means the mission has had a chance to witness most of a solar cycle and the transitions between its highs and lows, said C. Alex Young, associate director for science in the Heliophysical Science Division at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Scientists from NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the International Solar Cycle Prediction Panel announced in October that the Sun had reached solar maximum, or the peak of activity within its 11-year cycle.

At the peak of the solar cycle, the Sun’s magnetic poles flip, causing the Sun to go from calm to active. Experts track the increase in solar activity by counting how many sunspots appear on the Sun’s surface. And the Sun is expected to remain active for the next year or more.

The Sun’s increasing activity became obvious this year during two major auroral displays on Earth, in May and October, when coronal mass ejections released by the Sun were aimed at our planet. Solar storms are also responsible for generating auroras that dance around the Earth’s poles, known as the northern lights, or auror.the borealis, and southern lights, or aurora australis. When energized particles from coronal mass ejections hit Earth’s magnetic field, they interact with gases in the atmosphere to create different-colored light in the sky.

“Both storms [em maio e outubro] caused auroras to be visible as far away as part of the United States,” Young said. “But the May storm was an especially strong storm. In fact, we think it could be a 100- to possibly 500-year event, and it caused auroras very close to the equator, which is extremely unprecedented. It was a worldwide event that millions and, hopefully, billions of people got to see, and it may not happen again.”

Data collected by the Parker solar probe could allow scientists to better understand solar storms and even how to predict them, Young said.

“The Sun is the only star we can see in detail, but we can actually go to it and measure it directly,” Young said.

“It’s a laboratory in our solar system that allows us to learn about all the other stars in the universe and how all those stars interact with the billions and billions of other planets that may or may not be like our own planets in our solar system.”

With that in mind, Rawafi said he expects the Sun to put on a spectacular show during the probe’s approaches, allowing scientists to gain insights into the Sun’s activity.

“Sol, please do your best,” Rawafi said. “Give us the strongest event you can make: the Parker solar probe can handle it.”

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This content was originally published in NASA’s probe is about to make an unprecedented approach to the Sun on the CNN Brasil website.

Source: CNN Brasil