NASA spacecraft hopes to catch a solar flare as it zips past the sun

Scientists are excited that the solar probe has just passed the sun.

The solar probe came very close to the sun on Tuesday. It is in its 13th close approach of the sun. The sun has recently ejected solar flares and has a sunspot the size of Earth. During its close encounters with the sun,Parker hasn't yet encountered such activity, but scientists hope that this time it will.

The scientist in charge of the mission said that nobody has flown through a solar event so close to the sun before. We would learn a lot from the data.

A trio of solar flares cause radio blackouts.

In the 11-year solar cycle, the sun was in solar minimum, a quiet period when the sun is at its lowest point. The sun is already more active than scientists predicted, and activity is ramping back up to maximum solar activity. Scientists hope that some of the perhelia left will coincide with future solar events as their frequencies increase.

Three years of great science was done while the sun was quiet. "But our view of the solar wind and the corona will be completely different now, and we are very curious to see what we learn next." The sun's corona is the main target of the observations.

This perihelion is special because there will be a second set of eyes on the sun. After Solar Orbiter flew past Venus on Saturday, NASA and the European Space Agency decided to observe the sun at the same time asParker.

Combining the data from multiple space missions and ground observatories can help us understand the bigger picture. We will be able to study the evolution of the solar wind with both the Solar Orbiter and theParker observing the sun from different distances

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