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<\/p>\nA mission nearly 60 years in the making has launched on a historic flight to become the first spacecraft to \u201ctouch the surface of the Sun\u201d. NASA\u2019s Parker Solar Probe, named after Dr. Eugene Parker, will unlock many of the mysteries still held by our solar system\u2019s star. The probe launched atop at United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket on Sunday from the Cape\u2019s SLC-37 at 03:31 Eastern.<\/p>\n
Parker Solar Probe:<\/b><\/p>\n
The Parker Solar Probe began as an idea in the Outer Planet\/Solar Probe program of NASA in the 1990s. The original mission concept, the Solar Orbiter, was canceled in 2003 as part of the George W. Bush Administration\u2019s restructuring of NASA to focus more on research and development and address management shortcomings in the wake of the Space Shuttle Columbia accident.<\/p>\n
Six years later, the mission concept was resurrected as a \u201cnew mission start\u201d in 2009 with an aim to launch a new solar probe in 2015. By 2012, as the mission moved into its design phase, the launch was pushed to 2018.<\/p>\n
Originally called the Solar Probe Plus, the mission was renamed on 31 May 2017 in honor of Dr. Eugene Parker. In so doing, NASA radically departed from its previous mission naming practices. All prior missions named after people were done so after their deaths in honor of their accomplishments and contributions to science.<\/p>\n
Breaking with this tradition, NASA renamed Solar Probe Plus the Parker Solar Probe after Dr. Parker \u2013 making him the first living person to have a NASA spacecraft named after him.<\/p>\n
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The mission patch for the Parker Solar Probe flagship science mission to \u201ctouch the Sun.\u201d (Credit: NASA)<\/p>\n
A pioneering astrophysicist, Dr. Parker is best known for developing the theory of supersonic solar wind and correctly predicting the shape of the Heliospheric current sheet (or Parker spiral shape) of the solar magnetic field in the outer solar system. Furthermore, in 1987, Dr. Parker proposed that the solar corona was heated by a myriad of tiny nanoflares \u2013 solar flare-like brightenings that occur across the entirety of the Sun\u2019s surface. <\/p>\n
Unlike other solar telescopes and missions, the Parker Solar Probe will venture where no probe has gone before \u2013 into the Sun\u2019s corona. Mission planning calls for the probe to approach the Sun to within 6 million km (3.7 million miles) or just 0.04 AU \u2013 8.5 solar radii.<\/p>\n
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During its mission, Parker Solar will seek to answer three very important questions about the Sun: <\/p>\n
Answering that third question holds potentially great significance for our lives here on Earth and our quest to move beyond Earth and out into the solar system because these highly energetic particles are highly charged and can penetrate walls of spacecraft and be harmful for astronauts \u2013 like giving them a constant x-ray. <\/p>\n
These highly energetic particles can also wreak havoc with our electronics on Earth, in orbit, and in space. Therefore, part of Parker Solar\u2019s mission is to help us better understand how the particles are accelerated\/created in the corona \u2013 which in turn will help us better predict their occurrence and create improved plans for how to protect our technology and astronauts.<\/p>\n
Special heat shield and cooling system:<\/b><\/p>\n
Diving that close to the Sun, Parker Solar Probe will, according to NASA, \u201cexplore what is arguably the last and most important region of the solar system to be visited by a spacecraft and will finally answer top-priority science goals of the last five decades.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n