A space craft has touched the sun for the first time. Ben Smith is the author of Credit: NASA.
On April 28, 2021, at 3 a.m. The corona is where the sun's extended solar atmosphere is located. The outer boundaries of our sun are the first to be entered by the spacecraft.
The results were announced in a press conference at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting 2021. The manuscript is available for free download.
The goal of the mission was to understand the physics of the corona, and this marks the achievement of that goal. The mission is led by the JHU/APL.
The first direct observations of what lies within the sun's atmosphere were made by the probe.
The sun's outer edge begins at the point where the sun and its magnetic and gravity forces control the solar wind. Many scientists think that the sun's magnetic field can be seen from this area.
The idea of sending a craft into the sun's atmosphere that was sufficiently close to the sun's magnetic energy was first proposed by NASA.
An artist's conception of a solar probe approaching the sun. Steve Gribben is a NASA/JohnsHopkins APL employee.
The goal of the solar probe is to reach the sun's corona and make the first visit to a star.
The probe spent five hours below the critical surface of the sun. The pressure and energy of the sun's magnetic field was more powerful than the pressure and energy of the particles. Three times, the spacecraft passed above and below the surface. This is the first time a craft has entered the sun's atmosphere.
The researchers discovered that the critical surface is wrinkled. The data shows that the largest and most distant part of the surface was created by a pseudostreamer, a large magnetic structure more than 40 degrees across. It is not known why a pseudostreamer would push the critical surface away from the sun.
There were fewer switchbacks below the critical surface. The finding could mean that the corona does not have switchbacks. The observed wind stream could have been affected by low rates of magnetic reconnection on the sun's surface.
The probe recorded some evidence of a power boost just inside the corona, which may be related to unknown physics.
We have been observing the sun and its corona for decades, and we know there is interesting physics going on there to heat and accelerate the solar wind. Nour E. Raouafi is a scientist at JHU/APL. We will get the long-awaited insights into the inner workings of this mysterious region with the arrival of theParker Solar Probe.
During the eighth encounter with the sun, the observations took place. The data is publicly available. The probe would pass within the sun's boundaries in 2021.
Since its launch, the fastest known object built by humans has made many new discoveries, including on explosions that create space weather and the dangers of super-speedy dust.
The new findings show that direct observations by the satellites have a lot to say about the physics of solar wind formation. After touching the sun, the solar probe will descend even deeper into the sun's atmosphere and linger for longer periods of time.
The significance of the event and the observations made by the probe is hard to overstate according to Gary Zank, a co-investigator on the probe. The heliospheric community has wrestled with the issue of how the solar corona is heated for over 50 years. The first measurement of the sub-Alfvénic solar wind may be the most important step forward in understanding the physics behind the solar wind.
Many heliophysicists have dreamed about this event for a long time. "Zak added."
J. C. Kasper and his team wrote about the Magnetically Dominated Solar Corona in the Physical Review Letters. There is a book titled "PhysRevLett. 127.255101."
Journal information: Physical Review Letters.
The first 'touched' the sun by a solar probe was retrieved from the sun on December 15, 2021.
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