Humanity has officially touched the Sun (or, at least, one of its probes has)
- Reference: 1639550709
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/12/15/humanity_has_officially_touched_the/
- Source link:
The event actually happened way back on April 28, but it took months before the data made its way back to Earth and a few more before scientists could confirm the event. But now NASA has said, yep, that definitely happened – one of humanity's instruments has touched our local star.
We’ve touched the Sun! ☀️
Announced today at [1]#AGU21 , NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has officially become the first spacecraft to fly through the Sun’s outer atmosphere, or corona.
Learn more: [2]https://t.co/PuvczKHVxI [3]pic.twitter.com/CuJQ2UMymi — NASA Goddard (@NASAGoddard) [4]December 14, 2021
The Parker probe has been hurtling towards – and looping around – the Sun since its launch in August 2018. When the spacecraft entered the star's corona in April, it was its eighth close approach to Sol.
[5]ESA promises to get back to would-be astronauts by the end of 2021
[6]NASA's new black hole spotter makes it into orbit
[7]NASA installs a new and improved algorithm to better track near-Earth asteroids
The mission was launched with three main goals: to trace the flow of energy that heats the corona and accelerates solar wind, to learn about the structure and forces of the magnetic fields that create solar wind, and to determine what accelerates and transports energetic particles. To boldly go where no-one has gone before counts for extra credit.
Understanding solar winds is useful because occasional gouts of star stuff can disrupt satellites and other electronic technology. But determining how solar winds are created is hard, because the Sun doesn't have a solid surface – it's mostly hot plasma held together by its own gravity, and boundaries are hard to pin down.
Boffins have defined the "Alfvén Critical Surface" as the point separating the end of the solar atmosphere, or the corona, and the beginning of solar wind.
[8]
The corona is essentially the visible part in an eclipse. By dipping into it for over five hours, Parker [9]taught scientists that the Sun's magnetic field changes there.
[10]
[11]
During the flyby, the spacecraft crossed the Alfvén Critical Surface several times. In doing so, it confirmed a prediction: the boundary isn't perfectly round. It has spikes and waves and wrinkles – no doubt these features have some secrets to tell about how Sun-related events affect the atmosphere.
The spacecraft has a special heat shield made of reinforced carbon composite foam that allows it to withstand the blasting heat and energy produced by our star. The inner plate that faces the Sun has a white ceramic paint that reflects heat. Amazingly, the instruments onboard stay at a mere 27° Celsius (81°F).
[12]
It takes eight minutes for radio communication to travel between Earth and the probe – more if it is actively making observations, as the probe is cut off from communication at that time. Also, having the heat shield continuously pointed at the sun sometimes means that it just can't be in a position that allows transmission to Earth.
All this means Parker must protect itself autonomously, which it does using light-direction-detecting sensors and reaction wheels that reposition it into shadows.
It's very likely that the eighth orbit is not the only one where Parker entered the corona during perihelion – the point in the orbit where the spacecraft is closest to the Sun – but scientists are not quite ready to confirm whether its ninth and tenth passes, which occurred just last month, qualify. They want to look more at the data.
[13]
The next flyby will occur in January 2022. Parker will continue to fly ever closer to the Sun until it goes down in a blaze of glory in 2025.
In a video posted by NASA, astrophysicist and senior scientist at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory Dr Nour Raouafi [14]said the mission is important because our Sun is the only one known to harbor life. According to Dr Raouafi, Parker "will link directly into the question – are we alone in this universe?"
Well, so far we're the only ones who've built a thing just to launch it into the Sun, so we've got that. ®
Get our [15]Tech Resources
[1] https://twitter.com/hashtag/AGU21?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[2] https://t.co/PuvczKHVxI
[3] https://t.co/CuJQ2UMymi
[4] https://twitter.com/NASAGoddard/status/1470818373525200911?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2021/12/13/esa_astro_applicants/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2021/12/10/ixpe_launch_success/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/12/08/nasa_asteroid_algorithm/
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YbnK3CWn-Vc7dbtQ9vaAoQAAAEQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[9] https://journals.aps.org/prl/pdf/10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.255101
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YbnK3CWn-Vc7dbtQ9vaAoQAAAEQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YbnK3CWn-Vc7dbtQ9vaAoQAAAEQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YbnK3CWn-Vc7dbtQ9vaAoQAAAEQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YbnK3CWn-Vc7dbtQ9vaAoQAAAEQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[14] https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2021/nasa-enters-the-solar-atmosphere-for-the-first-time-bringing-new-discoveries
[15] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: We are lucky
Jules Verne described exactly that in his account about visiting the centre of the Earth.
What do you mean, "fiction"?
And to think, they never have done that if they went at night.
Well done, Parker
F.A.B.
Re: Well done, Parker
Thenk you, bilady.
I do hope that at some point the order is given to...
set the controls for the heart of the sun
Re: I do hope that at some point the order is given to...
2025, according to the post
Re: I do hope that at some point the order is given to...
Hmm... Pink Floyd, Disaster Area or a nod to both? Icon anyway for getting in first.
Certainly beat Steamhammer ( Mountains album); "Higher, we're getting higher, we can almost touch the Sun" - sure thing Kieran, can I have some of what you're on too?
FWIW Ray Bradbury wrote a short story about a spaceship sampling the Sun back somewhere around the 1950s. "The Golden Apples of the Sun" IIRC. Was a manned craft which extended an arm and slurped off a scoopful. He wrapped it in a load of poetic crap which I found impenetrable - something to do with the Garden of Eden and Original Sin, I guess - yawn! next story please, Mr. B.
Well done, Parker and Ray Bradbury wrote a short story about a spaceship sampling the Sun
[1]Thunderbirds , too.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Probe
Re: I do hope that at some point the order is given to...
David Brin: Sundiver.
Interesting method of cooling in that one, too...
Science.
Science. F*?kin' love it. A proper historical moment too, easily missed. Go, humanity!
27 Celsius?
A truly astonishing feat! That sort of insulation would be perfect to "hold my beer" #tooeasy #sorrynotsorry
Jorge Cham's graphical illustration
[1]Graphic illustration by Jorge Cham, aka [2]PHD Comics
[1] https://physics.aps.org/articles/v14/178
[2] https://phdcomics.com/
Re: Jorge Cham's graphical illustration
Hmm! I was hotter here in Australia today than if I was perched on the back of Parker while "touching" the sun. That's some impressive heatshielding. Especially considering it's basically in a thermos flask.
Mind you, I fled indoors to the aircon -- not sure if Parker's fitted with that. Might have to wait till Parker 2.0.
Re: Jorge Cham's graphical illustration
The only real heat there is radiation, and that's relatively straightforward to shield against. Still impressive, mind you, but remember how cold the moon's surface gets at "night".
Why did it take months for the data to get back to earth? Did they have to wait for suitable position of planet and probe?
From what I understand it takes a while for data to get back, but then they spend a lot of time going through and analysing that data to confirm exactly what it was doing- hence the article mentioning the last couple of flybys may have touched the Sun but they aren't certain yet.
First the craft has to get as far from the sun as possible, that thing emits a fair bit of radiation which would swamp any signal sent from close to the "surface".
Next line of sight between craft and receiver on Earth is needed.
Lastly there is a ton of data sent, it can take months before it is all processed.
Parker "will link directly into the question – are we alone in this universe?"
Someone's gone a bit too Brian Cox Wonders of the Cosmos here - How exactly is flying a probe into the sun's corona going to provide any evidence whatsoever for life on other planets?
It's already impressive, no need to overexcitedly overdo it.
Re: Parker "will link directly into the question – are we alone in this universe?"
They might discover a C'Tan?
"our Sun is the only one known to harbor life"
Isn't it a wonderful coincidence that our Sun happens to be the only one known to harbour life? It would be so inconvenient if we only knew a different one did.
We are lucky
it didn't pop that giant gas bag, we'd all be toast.
Though when I was young one of my state senators worried aloud about the danger of poking a hole in the ocean crust and having the ocean drain into it when funding for drilling samples off Hawaii was proposed.