US space agency Nasa has launched its mission to send a satellite closer to the Sun than any before. The Parker Solar Probe rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The probe is set to become the fastest-moving manmade object in history. Its data promises to crack longstanding mysteries about the Sun's behaviour. It is the first space craft to be named after a living person - astrophysicist Eugene Parker, 91, who first described solar wind in 1958.
Over the course of seven years, Parker will make 24 loops around our star to study the physics of the corona, the place where much of the important activity that affects the Earth seems to originate. The probe will dip inside this tenuous atmosphere, sampling conditions, and getting to just 6.16 million km (3.83 million miles) from the Sun's broiling "surface". Just under an hour after the launch, Nasa confirmed that the spacecraft had successfully separated and the probe had been released into space.
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https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-45160722
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-45160722
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