GSFC/JHUAPL: Parker Solar Probe

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GSFC/JHUAPL: Parker Solar Probe

Post by bystander » Wed Aug 08, 2018 3:39 pm

Parker Solar Probe Mission

NASA's Parker Solar Probe mission will revolutionize our understanding of the sun

Parker Solar Probe will swoop to within 4 million miles of the sun's surface, facing heat and radiation like no spacecraft before it. Launching in 2018, Parker Solar Probe will provide new data on solar activity and make critical contributions to our ability to forecast major space-weather events that impact life on Earth.

In order to unlock the mysteries of the corona, but also to protect a society that is increasingly dependent on technology from the threats of space weather, we will send Parker Solar Probe to touch the Sun.

In 2017, the mission was renamed for Eugene Parker, the S. Chandrasekhar Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus, Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Chicago. In the 1950s, Parker proposed a number of concepts about how stars—including our Sun—give off energy. He called this cascade of energy the solar wind, and he described an entire complex system of plasmas, magnetic fields, and energetic particles that make up this phenomenon. Parker also theorized an explanation for the superheated solar atmosphere, the corona, which is – contrary to what was expected by physics laws -- hotter than the surface of the sun itself. This is the first NASA mission that has been named for a living individual.

Parker Solar Probe Instruments: IS☉IS
Click to play embedded YouTube video.
Take a tour of the Integrated Science Investigation of the Sun—IS☉IS, pronounced ee-sis and including the symbol for the Sun in its acronym—on board Parker Solar Probe with Principal Investigator David McComas.

IS☉IS uses two complementary instruments in one combined scientific investigation to measure particles across a wide range of energies By measuring electrons, protons and ions, IS☉IS will understand the particles’ life cycles—where they came from, how they became accelerated and how they move out from the Sun through interplanetary space. The two energetic particle instruments on IS☉IS are called EPI-Lo and EPI-Hi (EPI stands for Energetic Particle Instrument).

http://parkersolarprobe.jhuapl.edu/
https://www.nasa.gov/parker
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CFA: Ready for Its Day in the Sun: The SWEAP Investigation

Post by bystander » Wed Aug 08, 2018 3:41 pm

Ready for Its Day in the Sun: The SWEAP Investigation
Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics | 2018 Aug 03

When NASA's Parker Solar Probe launches into space from the Kennedy Space Center, it will begin its journey to the Sun, our nearest star. The Parker Solar Probe will travel almost 90 million miles and eventually enter through the Sun's outer atmosphere to encounter a dangerous environment of intense heat and solar radiation. During this harrowing journey, it will fly closer to the Sun than any other human-made object.

To revolutionize our understanding of our most important and life-sustaining star, scientists and engineers have built a suite of instruments aboard the Parker Solar Probe to conduct different experiments. Some of these instruments will be protected by a thick carbon-composite heat shield. However, others will be more exposed.

The Solar Wind Electrons Alphas and Protons (SWEAP) investigation is the set of instruments that will directly measure the hot ionized gas in the solar atmosphere during the solar encounters. A key instrument on SWEAP called the Solar Probe Cup (SPC) was built at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) in Cambridge, Mass.

The SPC is a small metal device that will peer around the protective heat shield of the spacecraft directly at the Sun. It will face some of the most extreme conditions ever encountered by a scientific instrument, and allow a sample of the Sun’s atmosphere to be swept up for the first time.
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Berkeley: Space Probe to Plunge into Fiery Solar Corona

Post by bystander » Wed Aug 08, 2018 3:48 pm

Space Probe to Plunge into Fiery Solar Corona
University of California, Berkeley | 2018 Aug 07
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On August 11, NASA plans to launch Earth’s first spacecraft to venture inside the orbits of Venus and Mercury to touch the very edge of the Sun’s fiery corona.

Outfitted with instruments designed and built at the University of California, Berkeley, the Parker Solar Probe will achieve a goal that space scientists have dreamed about for decades: to get close enough to the Sun to learn how the turbulent surface we see from Earth dumps its energy into the corona and heats it to nearly 2 million degrees Fahrenheit, spawning the solar wind that continually bombards our planet. ...

The solar probe will travel faster than any spacecraft in history, at its peak reaching 430,000 miles per hour, and will be only four-and-a-half solar diameters, or 3.8 million miles, above the solar surface at its closet approach to the Sun around 2024. The probe is equipped with a heat shield to protect its sensors from the Sun’s heat, which could reach 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit, nearly hot enough to melt steel.

At this distance, the solar probe will be within a region where electrons and ionized atoms -- mostly hydrogen ions, or protons, and helium ions, called alpha particles -- are accelerated and shot out toward the planets at high speed. ...

Spacecraft to Speed Through Sun's Atmosphere and Snag Solar Wind
California Institute of Technology | 2018 Aug 07
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Re: GSFC/JHUAPL: Parker Solar Probe

Post by neufer » Wed Aug 08, 2018 4:04 pm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Parker wrote:
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<<In the mid-1950s Eugene Newman Parker (born June 10, 1927) developed the theory on the supersonic solar wind and predicted the Parker spiral shape of the solar magnetic field in the outer solar system. His theoretical modeling was not immediately accepted by the astronomical community. In fact, when he submitted the results to the Astrophysical Journal, two reviewers rejected it. The editor of the Astrophysical Journal, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, overruled the reviewers and published the paper. His models were resoundingly verified by satellite observations a few years later in the early 1960s. In 1987, Parker proposed that the solar corona might be heated by myriad tiny "nanoflares", miniature brightenings resembling solar flares that would occur all over the surface of the Sun.>>
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Re: GSFC/JHUAPL: Parker Solar Probe

Post by bystander » Thu Aug 09, 2018 7:15 pm

Keeping it cool: The Parker Solar Probe’s high-performance heat shield
Johns Hopkins University | 2018 Aug 08

UA Scientists Gear Up to 'Touch the Sun'
University of Arizona | 2018 Aug 09

French research takes off for the Sun
National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) | 2018 Aug 09
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Science@NASA: The Parker Solar Probe - A Mission to Touch the Sun

Post by bystander » Fri Aug 10, 2018 3:45 am

The Parker Solar Probe - A Mission to Touch the Sun
Science@NASA | ScienceCast | 2018 Aug 09
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People around the world look up and see our Sun every day. But through a space telescope, it looks nothing like it does from down on the ground. The surface dances with arches of solar material that reach up into the solar atmosphere – an environment of charged particles and magnetic fields unlike anything we experience on Earth. In 2018, the Parker Solar Probe will launch from a Delta IV Heavy rocket and travel approximately 3 months to take its first swing by the Sun right through that atmosphere. Over seven years it will get ever closer, until ultimately it’s within 3.9 million miles (6.2 million km) of the Sun’s surface. That’s so close, that the previous record holder, the Helios-B Spacecraft, was seven times farther away.

An important objective of the Parker Solar Probe is to learn more about the solar wind, an exotic stew of magnetic forces, plasma and particles. It interacts with planetary magnetospheres and atmospheres, which over the eons may have contributed to a planet’s habitability. It blankets our spacecraft and astronauts traveling to the moon or Mars. It affects space weather at and around Earth and causes beautiful aurorae.

The solar wind also travels at immense speeds, and scientists want to learn why. It leaves the Sun at a speed of up to 500 miles (800 km) a second and engulfs all major planets in the solar system. What is the source of the wind? From a distance, it’s difficult to tell. ...
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Parker Solar Probe Begins Journey to the Sun

Post by bystander » Sun Aug 12, 2018 3:12 pm

Parker Solar Probe Begins Journey to the Sun
NASA | Parker Solar Probe | 2018 Aug 12
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NASA’s Parker Solar Probe is on its way for a rendezvous with the Sun. A United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket, carrying the spacecraft, lifted off at 3:31 a.m. EDT, from Space Launch Complex 37 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, its engines blazing golden in the clear night sky during ascent. ...

About four minutes into flight, a series of key events occurred. The Delta IV port and starboard booster engines shut down and separated, the main core booster engine cut off and then separated from the second stage. After second stage engine ignition, the payload fairing was jettisoned. After second stage main engine cutoff and separation, the Parker Solar Probe separated from the third stage, provided by Northrup Grumman. Shortly afterward, mission managers confirmed that the spacecraft’s solar arrays successfully deployed and the spacecraft was operating on its own power.

During its mission to “touch” the Sun, Parker Solar Probe will use gravity assists from Venus seven times over nearly seven years to gradually bring its orbit closer to the Sun. It will fly directly through the Sun’s atmosphere, as close as 3.8 million miles from its surface, closer to the surface than any spacecraft before it. The spacecraft will hurtle around the Sun at speeds up to 430,000 miles per hour. That’s 15 times faster than a speeding bullet. ...

Parker Solar Probe Launches on Historic Journey to Touch the Sun
NASA | JHUAPL | ULA | Parker Solar Probe | 2018 Aug 12
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JPL Roles in Sun-Bound Parker Solar Probe

Post by bystander » Mon Aug 27, 2018 9:43 pm

JPL Roles in Sun-Bound Parker Solar Probe
NASA | JPL-Caltech | Parker Solar Probe | 2018 Aug 27

The navigation for NASA's Parker Solar Probe is led by the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, which also has a role in two of the spacecraft's four onboard instrument suites. Parker Solar Probe will fly closer to the Sun than any previous spacecraft and through the solar corona itself.

One instrument, called the Energetic Particle Instrument-Hi (EPI-Hi), will investigate the mysteries of high-speed solar particles that hurtle toward Earth at close to the speed of light. Observations by the Parker Solar Probe will lead to better predictions of space weather and address fundamental mysteries about the Sun's dynamic corona. EPI-Hi is part of the Integrated Science Investigation of the Sun, led by Principal Investigator David McComas of Princeton University in New Jersey. ...

Another instrument on Parker Solar Probe -- the Wide-Field Imager for Solar Probe Plus (WISPR) -- is the only camera aboard the spacecraft. It will take images of the Sun's corona and inner heliosphere. The imager has two telescopes that will capture images of the solar wind, shock waves, and other coronal structures as they approach and pass the spacecraft. WISPR provides a very wide field-of-view, extending from 13 degrees away from the center of the Sun to 108 degrees away. ...

In leading Parker's navigation efforts, JPL is helping to implement the mission's innovative trajectory, developed by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Maryland, which built and operates the spacecraft for NASA. The Parker Solar Probe will use seven Venus flybys over nearly seven years to gradually shrink its orbit around the Sun, coming as close as 3.83 million miles (6.16 million kilometers) to the Sun, well within the orbit of Mercury and about seven times closer to the Sun than any spacecraft before. ...
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Parker Reports Good Status After Close Solar Approach

Post by bystander » Fri Nov 09, 2018 3:40 pm

Parker Solar Probe Reports Good Status After Close Solar Approach
NASA | GSFC | Parker Solar Probe | 2018 Nov 08
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First Perihelion: Into the Unknown - Parker Solar Probe (Credit: JHU-APL)
Parker Solar Probe is alive and well after skimming by the Sun at just 15 million miles from our star's surface. This is far closer than any spacecraft has ever gone — the previous record was set by Helios B in 1976 and broken by Parker on Oct. 29 — and this maneuver has exposed the spacecraft to intense heat and solar radiation in a complex solar wind environment. ...

Mission controllers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab received the status beacon from the spacecraft at 4:46 p.m. EST on Nov. 7, 2018. The beacon indicates status "A" — the best of all four possible status signals, meaning that Parker Solar Probe is operating well with all instruments running and collecting science data and, if there were any minor issues, they were resolved autonomously by the spacecraft.

At its closest approach on Nov. 5, called perihelion, Parker Solar Probe reached a top speed of 213,200 miles per hour, setting a new record for spacecraft speed. Along with new records for the closest approach to the Sun, Parker Solar Probe will repeatedly break its own speed record as its orbit draws closer to the star and the spacecraft travels faster and faster at perihelion.

At this distance, the intense sunlight heated the Sun-facing side of Parker Solar Probe's heat shield, called the Thermal Protection System, to about 820 degrees Fahrenheit. This temperature will climb up to 2,500 F as the spacecraft makes closer approaches to the Sun — but all the while, the spacecraft instruments and systems that are protected by the heat shield are generally kept in the mid-80s F.

Parker Solar Probe's first solar encounter phase began on Oct. 31, and the spacecraft will continue collecting science data through the end of the solar encounter phase on Nov. 11. It will be several weeks after the end of the solar encounter phase before the science data begins downlinking to Earth.
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Preparing for Discovery with Parker Solar Probe

Post by bystander » Thu Dec 13, 2018 6:12 pm

Preparing for Discovery with Parker Solar Probe
NASA | GSFC | Parker Solar Probe | 2018 Dec 12
Weeks after Parker Solar Probe made the closest-ever approach to a star, the science data from the first solar encounter is just making its way into the hands of the mission's scientists. It's a moment many in the field have been anticipating for years, thinking about what they'll do with such never-before-seen data, which has the potential to shed new light on the physics of our star, the Sun.

On Dec. 12, 2018, four such researchers gathered at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in Washington, D.C., to share what they hope to learn from Parker Solar Probe.

"Heliophysicists have been waiting more than 60 years for a mission like this to be possible," said Nicola Fox, director of the Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. Heliophysics is the study of the Sun and how it affects space near Earth, around other worlds and throughout the solar system. "The solar mysteries we want to solve are waiting in the corona."

From Oct. 31 to Nov. 11, 2018, Parker Solar Probe completed its first solar encounter phase, speeding through the Sun's outer atmosphere — the corona — and collecting unprecedented data with four suites of cutting-edge instruments. ...

Our Sun's influence is far-reaching. The solar wind, its outflow of material, fills up the inner part of our solar system, creating a bubble that envelops the planets and extends far past the orbit of Neptune. Embedded in its energized particles and solar material, the solar wind carries with it the Sun's magnetic field. Additional one-off eruptions of solar material called coronal mass ejections also carry this solar magnetic field — and in both cases, this magnetized material can interact with Earth's natural magnetic field and cause geomagnetic storms. Such storms can trigger the aurora or even power outages, and other types of solar activity can cause communications problems, disrupt satellite electronics and even endanger astronauts — especially beyond the protective bubble of Earth's magnetic field. ...

Parker Solar Probe is designed to address three major questions about the physics of the Sun. First: How is the Sun's outer atmosphere, the corona, heated to temperatures about 300 times higher than the visible surface below? Second — how is the solar wind accelerated so quickly to the high speeds we observe? And finally, how do some of the Sun's most energetic particles rocket away from the Sun at more than half the speed of light? ...
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GSFC/JHUAPL: Parker Solar Probe Sheds New Light on the Sun

Post by bystander » Fri Dec 13, 2019 7:52 pm

Parker Solar Probe Sheds New Light on the Sun
NASA | GSFC | JHUAPL | Parker Solar Probe | 2019 Dec 04
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5 New Discoveries from Parker Solar Probe ~ Credit: NASA/GSFC
Music Credit: Smooth as Glass by The Freeharmonic Orchestra

Parker Solar Probe First Findings

In August 2018, NASA's Parker Solar Probe launched to space, soon becoming the closest-ever spacecraft to the Sun. With cutting-edge scientific instruments to measure the environment around the spacecraft, Parker Solar Probe – designed, built, and managed for NASA by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory – has completed three of 24 planned passes through never-before-explored parts of the Sun's atmosphere, the corona. On Dec. 4, 2019, four new papers in the journal Nature describe what scientists have learned from this unprecedented exploration of our star — and what they look forward to learning next.

These findings reveal new information about the behavior of the material and particles that speed away from the Sun, bringing scientists closer to answering fundamental questions about the physics of our star. In the quest to protect astronauts and technology in space, the information Parker has uncovered about how the Sun constantly ejects material and energy will help scientists re-write the models we use to understand and predict the space weather around our planet and understand the process by which stars are created and evolve. ...

First Results Reveal Surprising Details About Our Sun
NASA | GSFC | Parker Solar Probe | 2019 Dec 04

We're Missing Something Fundamental about the Sun
University of Michigan | Science & Technology | 2019 Dec 04

Revealing the Physics of the Sun
NASA | GSFC | JHUAPL | Parker Solar Probe | 2019 Dec 11

Parker probe kicks off a golden age for solar exploration
Nature News Editorial | 2019 Dec 04

A step closer to the Sun’s secrets
Nature News & Views | 2019 Dec 04

Sun-bombing spacecraft uncovers secrets of the solar wind
Nature News | 2019 Dec 04

Probing the energetic particle environment near the Sun ~ D. J. McComas et al Alfvénic velocity spikes and rotational flows in the near-Sun solar wind ~ J. C. Kasper et al Near-Sun observations of an F-corona decrease and K-corona fine structure ~ R. A. Howard et al Highly structured slow solar wind emerging from an equatorial coronal hole ~ S. D. Bale et al
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