Parker Solar Probe

is a NASA space probe with the mission of making observations of the outer corona of the Sun.

More information

LAUNCH

Date & Site:

Aug12, 2018

3:31 a.m. EDT

Cape Canaveral Air Force Station,

Florida

Vehicle

Delta IV-Heavy with Upper Stage

Distance

It was as close as 3.8 million miles to our star's surface.

Success

First scheduled trajectory correction on Aug 20, 2018.

About the mission...

The Parker Solar Probe is the first spacecraft to fly into the low solar corona. It will assess the structure and dynamics of the Sun's coronal plasma and magnetic field, the energy flow that heats the solar corona and impels the solar wind, and the mechanisms that accelerate energetic particles.

The spacecraft's systems are protected from the extreme heat and radiation near the Sun by a solar shield.

Future Aspiration

It will approach to within 9.86 solar radii 6.9 million km from the center of the Sun, and by 2025 will travel, at closest approach, as fast as 690,000; making It the fastest object ever built.

In-depth info

Why won't it melt?

According to Nasa: "The spacecraft will travel through material with temperatures greater than a million degrees Fahrenheit while being bombarded with intense sun light."

In order to protect the spacecraft, Nasa has been busy making a special shield to protect it from the intense heat and energy. This will allow it to get more than seven times closer to the Sun than any spacecraft has come before.

The shield will actually mean that inside the probe, it will be room temperature - despite being MUCH hotter on the outside.

As Parker Solar Probe flew by Venus on its fourth flyby, its WISPR instrument captured these images, strung into a video, showing the nightside surface of the planet.

Credits: NASA/APL/NRL

Kelly Korreck, NASA Scientist

" My 'why' is taking care of our home here on Earth, but also taking care of space and figuring out how we explore and how we go to new places thoughtfully. "