Parker Solar Probe set for blisteringly hot date with the Sun on Christmas Eve
- Reference: 1734967813
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/12/23/parker_solar_probe_sun/
- Source link:
"No human-made object has ever passed this close to a star, so Parker will truly be returning data from uncharted territory," [1]said Nick Pinkine , Parker Solar Probe mission operations manager at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL).
In addition to traveling far closer to the Sun than any previous mission, the spacecraft will also be barreling along at approximately 430,000 miles per hour.
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The spacecraft was launched on August 12, 2018, and is designed to study the workings of the Sun, specifically how solar corona and wind function. To do this, it must come closer to the star than any other mission, make its observations, and transmit them back to Earth over subsequent weeks. Scientists expect to receive a beacon tone on December 27 to confirm that it survived the flyby.
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The spacecraft has a 73 kg heat shield, measuring 11.4 centimeters thick with a diameter of 2.5 meters. Scientists reckon that the Sun-facing side of the carbon-composite shield will [5]experience temperatures of about 1,000°C (1,832°F) during its flyby, but the instruments in the shield's shadow should remain at a more comfortable [6]29°C (84°F). The heat shield is designed to withstand temperatures as high as [7]1,377°C (2,511°F).
[8]30 years and still sunbathing: SOHO probe continues work as a space weatherman
[9]Astronomers debate whether or not lightning strikes even once on Venus
[10]Parker Solar Probe uncovers mystery of 'fast' solar winds
[11]Sun's magnetic mystery solved by ESA NASA Solar Orbiter
The probe is well within the orbit of Mercury and has been using gravity assist flybys of Venus to tweak its trajectory. The trajectory design called for 24 orbits of the Sun and seven gravity assist flybys of Venus, the last of which took place on November 6.
December 24 represents the mission's closest approach to the Sun, and two more approaches are planned in 2025. After that, the primary mission will be complete and, [12]according to APL , "the team will decide whether to keep the spacecraft in that orbit or reposition it."
The Parker Solar Probe was named for Eugene Parker in 2017. Parker was then the S. Chandrasekhar Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago and had proposed concepts explaining how stars, such as the Sun, give off energy via solar wind and why the Sun's superheated atmosphere – the corona – is hotter than the surface of the Sun itself.
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It was the first time NASA named a mission for a living person. [14]Parker died in 2022 at the age of 94 . ®
Get our [15]Tech Resources
[1] https://parkersolarprobe.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/Show-Article.php?articleID=205
[2] 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=2Z2nrltFJjItPH3TcefDtYAAAANU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] 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=44Z2nrltFJjItPH3TcefDtYAAAANU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] 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=33Z2nrltFJjItPH3TcefDtYAAAANU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://parkersolarprobe.jhuapl.edu/The-Mission/index.php#Science-Objectives
[6] https://parkersolarprobe.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/index.php#Resources
[7] https://parkersolarprobe.jhuapl.edu/Spacecraft/index.php#Extreme-Environments
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2023/12/26/soho_space_infrastructure/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/04/astronomers_venus_lightning/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/13/parker_solar_probe_wind/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/14/suns_magnetic_mystery_esa/
[12] https://www.jhuapl.edu/news/news-releases/241108-venus-gravity-assist-7
[13] 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=44Z2nrltFJjItPH3TcefDtYAAAANU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[14] https://news.uchicago.edu/story/eugene-parker-legendary-figure-solar-science-and-namesake-parker-solar-probe-1927-2022
[15] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Nine solar radii -- just wow!
That's just incredible -- literally unbelievable.
3.8m miles is about 6m km. The sun's radius is 700,000km so that means it will be around nine solar radii from the surface of the sun. NINE!!
Wow.
Re: Nine solar radii -- just wow!
The Sun doesn't really have a surface or radius, it's just a big cloud of gas that gradually fizzles out rather than having a hard edge. The surface or edge you see when you look at the sun is essentially a trick of the light, it is simply where the density of the gas becomes high enough for it to turn opaque - there is no physical transition there. It's a bit of a stretch but you can make a coherent argument that Earth is actually inside the Sun.
Even at that distance the probe is within the outer wisps of the solar atmosphere, that is what it is actually measuring. Kudos to the team for being able to model this since that atmospheric drag must surely be non-negligible. Although it's probably a help in this instance, at these kinds of distances the problem tends to be getting rid of orbital energy.
Re: Nine solar radii -- just wow!
Haha. A downvote. It's such an incredible achievement and you downvote it. Where ever you go, there are always knobheads! Jeez.
Merry Christmas.
Re: Nine solar radii -- just wow!
> Haha. A downvote
Well, the Sun is just a luminary that is no more than 3,000 miles above the disc of the Earth, so that the greys can hide behind it whilst they are observing us. Obviously this is all just a false flag operation by NASA and Big Solar to keep the sheeple under control!
Anyway, it was too expensive and Elon is going to do far more cheaply *and* he'll catch one of the flying saucers in his chopsticks to prove to us that space is all a fake and the so-called stars are just a giant backdrop that Kubrick painted in 1969.
Another little yellow pill? Don't mind if I do.
METRES not METERS.
Hmm, I was wondering if they were measuring it in old-fashioned spinning disc meters, or new-fangled smart meters that can cope with the feed from the solar.
Why would El Reg use French?
Er, because i's [1] the base unit of length in the International System of Units maybe?
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metre
But the real question is, why didn't they use linguine?
And while we're there: about 1,000°C (1,832°F) no... about 1,000°C is about 1,800°F. There's no point doing a conversion that's three orders of magnitude more precise than the original estimation...
... and anyway, shouldn't the correct value be 98 Hiltons ?
24 orbits of the Sun
A mission that is planned to last 24 years on-station.
Can't say they aren't being ambitious with this one!
Re: 24 orbits of the Sun
An orbit is only one year at the distance Earth is.
Mercury takes 88 days to orbit because it's closer.
The Parker Probe on Winkipedia
It will approach to within 9.86 solar radii (6.9 million km or 4.3 million miles)[7][8] from the center of the Sun, and by 2025 will travel, at its closest approach, as fast as 690,000 km/h (430,000 mph) or 191 km/s, which is 0.064% the speed of light.[7][9] It is the fastest object ever built on Earth.
It's on a very elliptical orbit of about 88 to 89 days
See
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Animation_of_Parker_Solar_Probe_trajectory.gif
Green = Mercury
Cyan = Venus
Dark blue = Earth
Violet = Parker probe.
Re: 24 orbits of the Sun
Firstly - whooosh!
Secondly - that must be new fangled simple talk for the young people: we always used to be told that a year on Mars is longer than a year on Earth, lasting so many Martian days[1] which is equivalent to soany days on Earth, and a year on Pluto is so very much longer than that...
Because a year for any planet is measured against the "fixed stars" and the position of the local star with respect to them. No matter which planet, no matter which stellar system.
[1] yes, I am aware that nowadays we use the word "sols" to mean local days on Mars[2], but as not even your reference provides an alternative word for a Martian year...
[2] and I'm waiting for the confusion when we get a long-lived probe, preferably a rover, on a few other bodies and people get confused because now "sols" means something different then. Come to think of it, have you ever heard anyone talking about Lunar Sols? Although, with all the twaddle that "dark side" means "far side" just because of a popular music album. Rant. Mutter. Going back to chat with the local AstroSoc, they've all got their heads screwed on properly.
Temps
" The heat shield is designed to withstand temperatures as high as 1,377°C (2,511°F)."
Quick, send some to McDonalds' for their "baristas"...
Re: Temps
Best PSP stays away from molten Bramley apple pies after 8 minutes in the microwave.
[1] https://youtu.be/Hlau9xLqjjw?feature=shared
[1] https://youtu.be/Hlau9xLqjjw
Sun Probe Named Parker
I can't be the only one who saw the headline & instantly thought of the Thunderbirds episode "Sun Probe".