NASA Announces First-ever Spacecraft Reach to Sun Corona
NASA announced for the first time in history that a spacecraft has reached the Solar Corona at the
NASA Enters the Solar Atmosphere for the First Time | NASA
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2021/nasa-enters-the-solar-atmosphere-for-the-first-time-bringing-new-discoveries
We've touched the Sun! ☀️
— NASA Goddard (@NASAGoddard) December 14, 2021
Announced today at # AGU21 , NASA's Parker Solar Probe has officially become the first spacecraft to fly through the Sun's outer atmosphere, or corona.
Learn more: https://t.co/PuvczKHVxI pic.twitter.com/CuJQ2UMymi
In August 2018, NASA launched a spacecraft called 'Parker Solar Probe' to investigate the gas layer, the solar corona, which spreads outside the sun, and the 'solar wind' emitted by the sun.
Successful launch of NASA's space probe 'Parker Solar Probe' that approaches the sun and withstands high temperatures of 1400 degrees Celsius-GIGAZINE
Unlike the earth, the sun is a mass of gas. Gas covers the sun by gravity and magnetic force, but there is a point that it moves away from the center due to heat and pressure and away from the influence of gravity and magnetic force. This point is called the ' Alfven critical plane' ( the critical plane of the Alfven wave ), which is the boundary between the end of the sun's atmosphere and the solar wind. It has been thought to be in the range of the solar radius (about 6.9 million km) to 20 solar radii (about 13.9 million km).
According to NASA, the Parker Solar Probe reported that it passed the Alven critical plane at a radius of 18.8 (about 13.1 million km) from the surface of the Sun during the 8th perihelion passage (sun swing-by) in April 2021. He said he had done it. This means that for the first time in history, the spacecraft touched the sun's corona.
The Parker Solar Probe entered and exited the solar corona multiple times, revealing that the Alfvén critical plane was not a smooth sphere, but an uneven surface.
The destination of the Parker Solar Probe is not the critical plane of Alfvén, but will eventually approach the Sun up to the solar radius of 8.86 (about 6.2 million km). In the future, we will perform several sun swing-bys and Venus swing-bys, and it is expected that we will be closest to the sun after 2024.
The steps from the launch of Parker Solar Probe are summarized in the following video.
NASA's Parker Solar Probe Touches The Sun For The First Time --YouTube
Related Posts:
