The spacecraft will cross the Alfvén point where particles are accelerated faster than the speed of sound, torn free from the surface of the Sun.ĭeep within the Sun’s gravity well, the Parker Solar Probe will quickly become the fastest spacecraft, travelling at 430,000 miles per hour relative to Earth when it hits its closest approach in 2024, or fast enough to complete the journey from Paris to Sydney in under two minutes. While the probe will be measuring the field for the entire mission, the truly exciting part of these measurements will start around 2021 when the spacecraft starts dipping within the corona. But we’ve got backups, and backups on backups, and backups on those in order to be able to get through get through the storm.”Īnother set of instruments will investigate the Sun’s magnetic field, a strong jiggling mess of both closed loops and open streamers that may be responsible for why the corona gets so hot. That space weather can get more intense during coronal mass ejections when the Sun burps large clouds of particles into space that have their potentially catastrophic impact When asked what would happen if a major event happens while the spacecraft is close to the Sun, McNutt laughs: “It could turn into a very wild ride. “We don’t have a strong understanding of the mechanisms that drive that wind toward us, and that’s what we’re heading out to discover.”Īlthough the solar wind is measured by other spacecrafts farther from the Sun – and tracked closely on Earth due to its potential to produce colourful aurora (or when more intense, disrupt electronics – these will be the first close measurements from the source of high-energy solar particles as they are accelerated up to 1.8 million miles per hour. “Even though the solar wind is invisible, we can see it encircling the poles as the aurora, which are beautiful – but reveal the enormous amount of energy and particles that cascade into our atmosphere,” says Fox. The spacecraft will also measure the solar wind, tracking the constant outflow and irregular larger eruptions of particles and solar material that drive space weather. Long before then during its first close approach in November, Parker will be closer than any spacecraft has been before. Eventually, it’ll get within just 3.8 million miles of the solar surface. Instead, Parker will use the planet Venus, doing series of seven flybys over the next seven years to complete 24 close approaches between Mercury and the Sun. But even with an innovative heat shield designed to withstand up to 1,300 degrees Celsius – temperatures hot enough to melt steel on Earth – while keeping the spacecraft at room temperature, the Parker Solar Probe can’t get too close to the Sun for too long.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |