NASA launches parker solar probe on historic mission to 'touch' the sun

NASA‘s parker solar probe mission, which launched successfully in the morning of august 12 from cape canaveral air force station in florida, is the first to fly directly through the sun’s corona – the hazardous region of intense heat and solar radiation in the sun’s atmosphere that is visible during an eclipse. the spacecraft will swoop to within 4 million miles of the sun’s surface to gather new data on solar activity, which will contribute to our ability to forecast major space-weather events that impact life on earth.

all images courtesy of NASA,  photo by kim shiflett
header photo by bill ingalls

part of NASA’s ‘living with a star’ program, which explores aspects of the sun-earth system that affect life and society, the parker solar probe will fly directly through the sun’s atmosphere. during its mission to ‘touch’ the sun, the probe will use gravity assists from venus seven times over nearly seven years to gradually bring its orbit closer to the sun. the spacecraft, which will fly closer to earth’s home star than any other mission before it, will reach speeds up to 430,000 miles per hour – that’s 15 times faster than a speeding bullet. the information it will gather is meant to improve our understanding of how the sun changes the space environment, where space weather can affect astronauts, interfere with satellite orbits, or damage spacecraft electronics.

photo by kim shiflett

photo by leif heimbold

photo by leif heimbold

photo by bill ingalls

photo by leif heimbold

photo by kim shiflett