On May 31, the United States Aerospace Agency (NASA) announced an ambitious mission, bringing a spacecraft as close as possible to experience the enormous heat and radiation emitted by the Sun. , as well as the study of the formation of this planet.
The unmanned spacecraft named Parker Solar will be the first to fly directly into the atmosphere surrounding the “fireball”, also known as the halo of the sun, at the closest distance in history. no universe.
Capable of reaching speeds of 690,000 km / h, Parker Solar is programmed to circle the Sun seven times at a distance of 6.3 million km from the surface over a period of 7 years.
To withstand 1,377 degrees Celsius in the intended access area, this little car-sized spacecraft is equipped with a protective layer of carbon compound 11.43 cm thick.
In addition, Parker Solar is also equipped with a white light camera to capture valuable images from its journey of discovery.
Scientists believe that Parker will transmit valuable data to Earth that will help improve its ability to predict solar storms and climate events in space that could affect life on Earth. Satellites or astronauts are on a mission in space.
Without stopping there, the project team also expects Parker Solar to measure plasma waves and high-energy molecules, as well as capture images of the structures they fly over, helping to provide additional data. New perspectives on the Sun’s formation process.
Parker Solar is scheduled to be launched into space in July 2018 from the Kenedy Space Center in Florida (United States). The ship is named after astrophysicist Eugene Parker, currently a distinguished lecturer at the University of Chicago, who has dedicated his life to the study of the solar wind.
