Here's the First Image of the Sun from the Parker Solar Probe

By Evan Gough December 14, 2018
Here's the First Image of the Sun from the Parker Solar Probe

"Heliophysicists have been waiting more than 60 years for a mission like this to be possible. The solar mysteries we want to solve are waiting in the corona." - Nicola Fox, director of the Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters.

"Parker Solar Probe is providing us with the measurements essential to understanding solar phenomena that have been puzzling us for decades." - Nour Raouafi, PSP project scientist, JHU/APL.

  • How is the Sun's outer atmosphere, the corona, heated to temperatures about 300 times higher than the visible surface below?

  • How is the solar wind accelerated so quickly to the high speeds we observe?

  • How do some of the Sun's most energetic particles rocket away from the Sun at more than half the speed of light?

    • The Parker Solar Probe Will Build or Break Our Models

    Sources:

  • NASA Press Release: Preparing for Discovery With NASA's Parker Solar Probe

  • NASA: AGU 2018 - Expected Data and Scientific Discovery from NASA’s Parker Solar Probe

  • NASA Press Release: Parker Solar Probe Reports Good Status After Close Solar Approach

  • NASA Press Release: Parker Solar Probe Breaks Record, Becomes Closest Spacecraft to Sun

  • NASA: Parker Solar Probe

  • NASA Living With a Star Program

    • Evan Gough

    Evan Gough

    Evan Gough is a science-loving guy with no formal education who loves Earth, forests, hiking, and heavy music. He's guided by Carl Sagan's quote: "Understanding is a kind of ecstasy."