In 2018, the Parker solar probe was launched from Florida to explore the mysteries of the oldest star in our solar system, the Sun. Today, Parker has become the closest spacecraft to the Sun and the only one to has managed to ‘touch it‘.
Unlike the Earth, the Sun it does not have a solid surface. What he has achieved The Parker spacecraft is to reach the Sun’s upper atmosphere, known as the corona.
What does it mean to touch the Sun?
“It’s amazing, Parker is touching the Sun,” he says. Nour Raouati, one of the scientists on the project.
On April 28, 2021, during its eighth flyby, the probe encountered specific magnetic and particle conditions at 18.8 solar radii, about 13 million kilometers above the surface, allowing scientists to know that they had crossed the critical surface of Alfvén, which marks the end of the atmosphere and the beginning of the solar wind, for eEntering its atmosphere for the first time.
He didn’t go in just once, he did it several times. This allowed determining that the Sun’s upper atmosphere is not smooth, but is composed of peaks and valleys. A discovery that will allow scientists to know how events on the Sun affect the atmosphere solar.
Another Parker discovery was the presence of a massive structure rising above the surface of the sun in the corona. The structure, known as pseudostreamer, can be seen from the Earth in solar eclipses and is similar to a “storm eye” where the particles move slower and the curves decrease.
Other challenges
Parker is scheduled to perform 21 approaches close to the Sun for the next seven years, expecting it to approach up to 6.2 million kilometers from the Sun’s surface in 2024, locating closer than mercury.
These approximations will allow new information to be obtained for understand and forecast weather eventsExtreme space conditions that can disrupt telecommunications and even damage satellites around the Earth.
The surface temperature of the Sun is about 5,600ºC, a temperature capable of melting any material. The probe’s heat shield, always directed towards the Sun, and the coating of all on-board equipment with special materials is what prevents the ship from disintegrating. Some materials can withstand up to 2300ºC.
In the moments of maximum approximation it reaches the 1.300 ºC, more than the lava from the La Palma volcano.
Simulations
To simulate the light and heat of the Sun, projectors of cine IMAX, modified to give even more intensity and at the same time, a particle accelerator reproduced the impact of the solar wind.
The main sensor was tested once more in the Odiell’s solar ovenor, on the northern slope of the Cerdanya, concentrating on it the light reflected by ten thousand adjustable mirrors.
“It is an advance that will allow us to answer the question that we all ask ourselves: Are we alone in this universe?“, sentence Raouati.