As it approaches the Sun, the solar probe is making new discoveries. This image shows the distances from the Sun to some of the discoveries. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Mary P. Hrybyk-Keith
The Sun has been touched by a vehicle for the first time. The solar probe flew through the Sun's upper atmosphere, where it collected particles and magnetic fields.
The new milestone is a major step in the development of theParker Solar Probe. Scientists will be able to uncover critical information about our closest star and the influence it has on the solar system if they touch the Sun's surface.
The "touching the Sun" feat of theParker Solar Probe is a monumental moment for solar science and a truly remarkable feat," said Thomas Zurbuchen, the associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Not only does this milestone provide us with deeper insights into our Sun's evolution and it's impacts on our solar system, but everything we learn about our own star also teaches us more about stars in the rest of the universe."
The flow of particles from the Sun that can affect us on Earth are some of the new discoveries made by the Parker craft as it circles closer to the solar surface. The solar wind has magnetic zig-zag structures that are close to the Sun. How and where they form remained a mystery. Since then, the distance to the Sun has been reduced so that the solar surface can be identified.
The first flyby through the corona will continue to provide data on phenomena that are impossible to study from afar.
The corona is the layer of the solar atmosphere that is dominated by magnetism. There is evidence of being in the corona in magnetic field data, solar wind data, and in images. During a solar eclipse, we can see the spacecraft flying through the sun's corona.
Closer than ever before.
The solar probe traveled closer to the Sun than any other craft before it. Three years after launch and decades after conception, Parker has arrived.
The Sun does not have a solid surface. The atmosphere is made of solar material bound to the Sun by gravity and magnetic forces. As the material moves away from the Sun, gravity and magnetic fields are not strong enough to contain it.
The end of the solar atmosphere and beginning of the solar wind can be seen at that point. The solar wind, which drags the magnetic field of the Sun with it as it races across the solar system, is caused by solar material with the energy to make it across that boundary. Waves within the wind cannot travel fast enough to make it back to the Sun, because the solar wind moves so fast.
Researchers were unsure where the critical surface was. The corona was estimated to be between 10 to 20 solar radii from the surface of the Sun. If the estimates were correct, the spacecraft would have been in the position to cross the boundary if it had not been for the spiral trajectory.
On April 28, 2021, during its eighth flyby of the Sun, the Parker Solar Probe encountered the specific magnetic and particle conditions that scientists had never seen before and finally entered the solar system.
"We were fully expecting that, sooner or later, we would encounter the corona for at least a short duration of time," said Justin Kasper, deputy chief technology officer at BWX Technologies, Inc. It is very exciting that we have reached it.
The Sun has been touched by a vehicle for the first time. The solar probe flew through the Sun's upper atmosphere, sampling particles and magnetic fields. The NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center is pictured.
Into the eye of the storm.
During the flyby, the solar probe passed into and out of the corona. The Alfvén critical surface is not shaped like a smooth ball. It has spikes and valleys. Scientists can learn how events on the Sun affect the atmosphere and solar wind if they know where the protrusions line up.
At one point, as the solar probe dipped to just beneath 15 solar radii, it transited a feature in the corona called a pseudostreamer. During solar eclipses, pseudostreamers rise above the Sun's surface and can be seen from Earth.
The pseudostreamer was like flying into a storm. The conditions inside the pseudostreamer were quiet, the particles slowed, and the number of switchbacks dropped.
The magnetic fields were strong enough to dominate the movement of particles in the region for the first time. The conditions were the most important proof that the spacecraft entered the solar atmosphere and passed the critical surface.
One of the many planned for the mission is the first passage through the corona. The Sun will eventually reach as close as 8.86 solar radii (3.83 million miles) from the surface. The next flyby of the solar probe will likely be in January of 2022.
"I'm looking forward to seeing what Parker finds as it passes through the corona multiple times in the years to come," said Fox. New discoveries are boundless.
Solar activity drives the size of the corona. The outer edge of the corona will expand as the sun's activity cycle ramps up, giving the solar probe a better chance of being in the corona for longer.
It is important to get into the region because we think all sorts of physics could turn on. We're getting into that region and we hope to see some of the physics and behaviors.
The narrowing down of switchback origins.
The first trips through the corona had some surprising physics. The origin of zig-zag-shaped structures in the solar wind was pinpointed by the data collected by the solar probe. The photoosphere is where the switchbacks originate, according to the data.
The solar wind is a constant of particles and magnetic fields when it reaches Earth. The solar wind is patchy as it escapes the Sun. The solar wind's magnetic field lines were discovered by the NASA-European Space Agency mission, which flew over the Sun's poles in the mid 1990s. Scientists thought the occasional switchbacks were confined to the Sun's polar regions.
The solar probe flew by structures called coronal streamers as it passed through the corona. The structures are bright and can be seen in the upper images and lower row. The view is only possible because the spacecraft flew above and below the streamers. streamers have only been seen from a distance. They can be seen from Earth during solar eclipses. The APL/Naval Research Laboratory is a part of NASA.
The solar wind is common with switchbacks, which were discovered in 2019. New questions were raised about where the features came from. Were they forged at the surface of the Sun, or shaped by the magnetic fields in the solar atmosphere?
The new findings at the Astrophysical Journal confirm that one origin point is near the solar surface.
The clues came as the sun was less than 25 solar radii away from the SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA The data showed that there is a higher percentage of helium in patches than in other elements. The origins of the switchbacks were further narrowed when the scientists found patches aligned with magnetic funnels.
Scientists think that the magnetic funnels might be where the solar wind begins. The solar wind comes in two different types, fast and slow, and the funnels could be where some particles in the fast solar wind come from.
Stuart Bale, professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and lead author on the new paper, said that the structure of the regions with switchbacks matches up with a small magnetic funnel structure at the base of the corona. "This is what we expect from some theories, and this is where the solar wind comes from."
Understanding where and how the components of the fast solar wind emerge, and if they're linked to switchbacks, could help scientists answer a longstanding solar mystery: how the corona is heated to millions of degrees, far hotter than the solar surface below.
The scientists can't yet confirm how the switchbacks are formed. One theory suggests that they might be created by waves of plasma that roll through the region. They're made by an explosion known as magnetic reconnection, which is thought to occur at the boundaries where the magnetic funnels come together.
Bale said that as we go deeper into the mission and lower and closer to the Sun, we're going to learn more about how magnetic funnels are connected to the switchbacks. Hopefully we can resolve the question of what process makes them.
Now that researchers know what to look for, it may be possible to find more clues about solar phenomena. The data will allow scientists to see a region that is critical for pushing the solar wind to supersonic speeds. Extreme space weather events that can disrupt telecommunications and damage satellites around Earth will be better understood with the help of the corona's measurements.
"It's really exciting to see our advanced technologies succeed in taking theParker Solar Probe closer to the Sun than we've ever been, and to be able to return such amazing science," said Joseph Smith, the program executive at NASA Headquarters. We look forward to seeing what else the mission discovers as it gets closer.
NASA's Living with a Star program explores aspects of the Sun-Earth system that directly affect life and society. The Living with a Star program is managed by the agency's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. NASA'sParker Solar Probe mission was designed, built, and operated by the Applied Physics Laboratory at the University of Maryland.
New discoveries will be brought by NASA in the solar atmosphere for the first time on December 14, 2021.
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