Kissing the sun

Kissing the sun

Nasa’s Parker Solar Probe will go where no man-made object has gone before.

Nasa’s launch of its much-anticipated Parker Solar Probe last Sunday is a huge milestone in our endeavour to understand the workings of our closest star. The probe, named after 91-year-old astrophysicist Eugene Parker, the first time Nasa christened a spacecraft after someone still alive, will become the closest man-made object to the Sun. Over a period of seven years, it will make 24 approaches to the star, coming to within 6.12 million kilometres of the Sun’s surface. Such a close approach will, breathtakingly, allow the Parker probe to dip directly into the Sun’s corona or outer atmosphere.

Not surprisingly, temperatures that the probe will have to withstand are off the charts too. Its protective front heat shield is expected to heat up to 1,300°C. Samples of the Sun’s atmosphere scooped up by the spacecraft’s Solar Probe Cup, and other data the probe is expected to collect, should considerably enhance our understanding of things like solar winds – whose existence Eugene Parker had proposed 60 years ago. These solar winds, if big enough, can rattle the Earth’s magnetic field and disrupt satellites, communications and power grids. Parker probe’s findings should help scientists predict these solar storms better.

Taken together, the Parker probe – which will also become the fastest man-made object travelling around the Sun at speeds of up to 6,90,000 kmph – represents a giant leap in space science. It also exemplifies that the boundaries of technology are constantly being expanded. And humanity surely couldn’t have come within touching distance of the Sun without the collective contributions of scientists and universities from across the world. Hence, with nationalism trending and protectionism on the rise, the Parker probe shows that we can only reach the stars if we all work together.