Parker Solar Probe Studies Solar

NASA's sun-skimming spacecraft, the Parker Solar Probe, is surprising scientists with its unprecedented close views of our star. Scientists released the first results from the mission Wednesday. They observed bursts of energetic particles never seen before on such a small scale as well as switchback-like reversals in the out-flowing solar magnetic field that seem to whip up the solar wind. Researchers said they also finally have evidence of a dust-free zone encircling the sun. Farther out, there's so much dust from vaporizing comets and asteroids that one of 80 small viewfinders on one instrument was pierced by a grain earlier this year.

Launched in 2018, Parker has come within 15 million miles (25 million kilometers) of the sun and will get increasingly closer — within 4 million miles (6 million kilometers) — over the next six years. It's completed three of 24 orbits of the sun, dipping well into the corona, or upper atmosphere. The goal of the mission is to shed light on some of the mysteries surrounding the sun. Parker will sweep past Venus on Dec. 26 for the second gravity-assist of the $1.5 billion mission and make its fourth close solar encounter in January. As Parker gets even closer to its target, the sun will go through an active phase “so we can expect even more exciting results soon,” University College London's Daniel Verscharen wrote in an accompanying editorial. Verscharen was not part of the mission.

Credits:
https://katu.com/news/nation-world/surprising-1st-results-from-nasas-sun-skimming-spacecraft-12-05-2019