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A mission to touch the Sun, with the fastest spacecraft in history
New York to Tokyo in less than a minute, that’s how fast NASA’s next mission to the Sun can go. Designed to study the solar atmosphere, the Parker Solar Probe will go closer to the Sun’s surface than any other spacecraft before it. Things are going to heat up real quick
Jatan Mehta
Space writer fighting for a better Web . Email: uncertainquark[@]gmail[dot]com
Oct 20
Contrary to the surface temperature of the Sun which is ~6000 degrees Celsius, its outer atmosphere (the corona) is actually heated up to millions of degrees. And we don’t know exactly why. Such high temperatures result in a release of high energy charged particles (electrons, protons, alpha particles) from the corona, collectively called the solar wind ...
An artist’s concept of the Parker Solar Probe approaching the Sun. Source: JHUAPL
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