NASA's Parker Solar Probe is set to make history with its close approach to the Sun, providing valuable insights into the Sun's corona and solar wind.
NASA plans to make history next week as researchers prepare for an epic flyby past the sun. The probe, engineered to study the corona -- the outermost layer of the sun's atmosphere, launched in August 2018 and has been gradually orbiting closer to the sun's surface ever since, Nicki Rayl, NASA deputy director of heliophysics, told ABC News.
In November, the probe conducted its seventh and final gravity assist, where it used the planet's gravity to alter its speed and direction so it could enter its final orbit around the sun. 'These cosmic catapults, where we pinball off of the various planets, allow a spacecraft to change its orbit without wasting a lot of fuel,' Patricia Reiff, a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University in Houston, told ABC News. 'If you want to get closer and closer to the sun, you have to slow yourself down, and that takes fuel. They don't have a lot of onboard fuel.' Tools aboard the probe will collect data on the energy flowing out from the star, Rayl said. Research like this is integral because so much of life on Earth is dependent on the sun, she added. By getting close to the sun, Reiff said, scientists will be able to measure the inner part of the solar wind, 'which is where the solar corona expands out and becomes the solar wind, and it will travel inside that boundary where it's now mostly corona and not solar wind.' 'And by understanding that process, where the corona becomes supersonic and turns into the solar wind, then we can help predict space weather and understand the sun and its processes better,' she continued. Solar activity can have negative impacts on satellites orbiting in space, as well as navigation and control for astronauts navigating through space, Rayl said. 'Getting a better understanding of what's happening in our local neighborhood really helps us protect our investments in space and the future of astronaut space travel,' she said
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