NASA is set to make history just before 7 am ET today with its Parker Solar Probe scheduled to make the closest-ever flyby of the sun to date. At its nearest, the spacecraft will reach 3.8 million miles of the solar surface—about 4.5 times the diameter of the sun. For comparison, the moon sits at a distance from Earth roughly 30 times our planet’s diameter.
In addition to studying the sun’s atmosphere, the probe is expected to shed light on our understanding of solar wind (see 101)—streams of fast-moving particles that sweep throughout the solar system, creating auroras and interfering with electronics on Earth. The spacecraft, which launched in 2018, now travels at approximately 430,000 miles per hour and is designed to withstand temperatures around 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit.
The probe honors physicist Eugene Parker, who first proposed the existence of the solar wind.
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