PARKER SOLAR PROBE            

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Context

• In an astronomical milestone for NASA, their Parker Solar Probe flew into the Sun’s corona (where the temperature is roughly two million degrees Fahrenheit) becoming the first spacecraft ever to do so.

About

• The Parker Solar Probe is a NASA space probe launched in 2018 with the mission of making observations of the outer corona of the Sun.
• It will approach to within 9.86 solar radii from the center of the Sun, and by 2025 will travel, at closest approach, as fast as 690,000 km/h, or 0.064% the speed of light.
• The Parker Solar Probe mission design uses repeated gravity assists at Venus to incrementally decrease its orbital perihelion to achieve a final altitude (above the surface) of approximately 8.5 solar radii.

Science Goals

The goals of the mission are:

• Trace the flow of energy that heats the corona and accelerates the solar wind.
• Determine the structure and dynamics of the magnetic fields at the sources of solar wind.
• Determine what mechanisms accelerate and transport energetic particles.

Significance

• Parker's insights, and those that come from other solar observatories, have direct relevance for everyone living on Earth.
• The biggest solar flares from the Sun can rattle our planet's magnetic field.
• In the process, communications may be disrupted, satellites can be knocked offline, and power grids will be vulnerable to electrical surges.
• Scientists try to forecast these "storms" and Parker promises new and valuable information to help them do that.

Read about Solar Corona here: https://www.iasgyan.in/daily-current-affairs/mysteries-of-solar-corona

Read: https://www.iasgyan.in/blogs/structure-of-the-sun

https://coolhunting.com/tech/nasas-parker-solar-probe-touched-the-sun/