Parker Solar Probe is a spacecraft designed to study the sun at close range. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) launched the Parker Solar Probe in 2018. The probe is the fastest human-made object in the solar system. The sun’s gravity is expected to accelerate the probe to extreme speeds of up to 430,000 miles (700,000 kilometers) per hour.
The probe’s mission is to study the sun’s corona, the outermost layer of the sun’s atmosphere. The mission objectives include (1) studying how energy and heat flow through the corona; (2) gathering information on the plasma (gaslike substance) the sun is made of, and on magnetic fields near the sun; and (3) learning more about how high-energy particles travel outward from the sun. In 2021, the probe passed through the sun’s corona for the first time.
The Parker Solar Probe gathers several kinds of data as it passes through the corona. One set of instruments, known as FIELDS, includes antennas to measure electric fields and magnetometers to measure magnetic fields. The probe is also equipped with a pair of cameras to capture images of the sun. It carries various instruments for studying particles in the solar wind. The solar wind is the continuous flow of particles from the sun.
The sun’s corona can be as hot as 4,000,000 °F (2,200,000 °C). Because of the corona’s low density (concentration of matter), the Parker Solar Probe will not experience the sun’s most intense heat. However, it will encounter temperatures of up to 2,500 °F (1,377 °C)—hotter than lava from a volcano. The probe has a heat shield called the Thermal Protection System (TPS) that prevents the body of the probe from exceeding 85 °F (30 °C). The TPS is made of layers of carbon and is painted white to reflect as much heat as possible. Instruments that need to extend outside the heat shield are made from metals with extremely high melting points, such as molybdenum alloys, niobium, and tungsten.
The Parker Solar Probe was the first NASA mission to be named after a living person. It was named after the physicist Eugene Parker, a pioneer of modern study of the sun and the solar wind.
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