WHAT IS NASA'S PARKER SOLAR PROBE?
The Parker Solar Probe (PSP) is set to travel seven times closer to the sun than any spacecraft before it
Nasa's Parker Solar Probe (PSP) is set to travel seven times closer to the sun than any spacecraft before it.
lt launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket on August 12 2018.
The probe will fly to the sun's outer atmosphere to study life of stars and their weather events.
It is hoped that PSP can help scientists to better understand solar flares - brief eruptions of intense high-energy radiation from the sun's surface that can knock out communications on Earth.
The spacecraft will swoop within 4 million miles (6.5 million km) of the sun's surface - bringing it seven times closer to the sun's surface than any spacecraft before it.
The craft will face extremes in heat and radiation and will reach speeds of up to 430,000 miles per hour (700,000 kph) at its closest flyby of the star.
The craft's kit includes a white light imager called Whisper, which will take images of solar waves as the craft propels through them at high speeds.
To measure the 'bulk plasma' of solar winds - described by Nasa as the 'bread and butter' of the flares - a set of magnetic imaging equipment will also be stored on board.
HOW IS THE SOLAR WIND FORMED?
The sun and its atmosphere are made of plasma – a mix of positively and negatively charged particles which have separated at extremely high temperatures, that both carries and travels along magnetic field lines.
Material from the corona streams out into space, filling the solar system with the solar wind.
But scientists found that as the plasma travels further away from the sun, things change.
The sun begins to lose magnetic control, forming the boundary that defines the outer corona – the very edge of the sun.
The breakup of the rays is similar to the way water shoots out from a squirt gun.
First, the water is a smooth and unified stream, but it eventually breaks up into droplets, then smaller drops and eventually a fine, misty spray.
A recent Nasa study captured the plasma at the same stage where a stream of water gradually disintegrates into droplets.
If charged particles from solar winds hit Earth's magnectic field, this can cause problems for satellite and communication equipment.
HOW IS THE SOLAR WIND FORMED?
The sun and its atmosphere are made of plasma – a mix of positively and negatively charged particles which have separated at extremely high temperatures, that both carries and travels along magnetic field lines.
Material from the corona streams out into space, filling the solar system with the solar wind.
But scientists found that as the plasma travels further away from the sun, things change.
The sun begins to lose magnetic control, forming the boundary that defines the outer corona – the very edge of the sun.
The breakup of the rays is similar to the way water shoots out from a squirt gun.
First, the water is a smooth and unified stream, but it eventually breaks up into droplets, then smaller drops and eventually a fine, misty spray.
A recent Nasa study captured the plasma at the same stage where a stream of water gradually disintegrates into droplets.
If charged particles from solar winds hit Earth's magnectic field, this can cause problems for satellite and communication equipment.
Comments
Post a Comment