NASA is sending a mission to the Sun

NASA is sending a mission to the Sun

NASA announced the «unprecedented» mission to the Sun.

The mission called Solar Probe Parker in honor of the famous astrophysicist Eugene Parker, whose work revolutionized the understanding of the science of the Sun.

Mission the summer of 2018 will be the first of the year, which will go to the atmosphere of the Sun, NASA said that this is the culmination of 60 years of experience. It is expected that the data collected by the probe, will improve the forecasting of space weather, which affects life on Earth and on the lives of the astronauts say NASA.

According to representatives NASA, the probe will pass within four million miles of the Sun’s surface at such a distance to the star has not yet flew no spacecraft. The probe is equipped with a special heat shield that can withstand temperatures up to 1400 degrees Celsius.

In NASA hopes that the data collected will help to answer the longstanding mysteries of the stars.

The first mission named after a still-living scientist. In the 1950-ies Eugene Parker developed the theory of the solar wind, and investigated the formation of sunspots and the nature of the magnetic field of the Sun, the propagation of shock waves in interplanetary space, origin and structure of galactic magnetic fields, the origin and propagation of galactic cosmic rays. His discoveries have changed scientists ‘ ideas about space.

Pre-launch is scheduled for July 31, 2018.

«Still some questions remain a mystery to scientists, for example, why the Sun’s corona hotter than its surface, is formed as the solar wind,» says mission scientist Nicola Fox.

According to him, the data probe will be able to bring a scientist of NASA’s «missing puzzle pieces».

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