Author: Stephen Johnson / Source: Big Think
- NASA’s Parker Solar Probe is currently traveling closer to the sun than any other spacecraft before it.
- The probe is recording data on the star to help scientists learn more about the star and its volatile nature.
- Also this week, NASA released the first images of its Mars InSight lander taken from space.
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has come closer to the sun than any human spacecraft before it, managing to enter the star’s atmosphere to record data for the ambitious mission.
On November 8, the probe soared within about 15 million miles of the sun’s surface. To illustrate how close that is, NASA researchers wrote: “If Earth was at one end of a yard-stick and the Sun on the other, Parker Solar Probe will make it to within four inches of the solar surface.”
During the encounter, the probe’s wide-field imager snapped the closest-ever photo of the sun emitting solar material, in an event known as a coronal streamer.
NASA
These events usually occur over regions undergoing increased solar activity, and this one appeared over the east limb of the sun and includes at least two visible rays. Jupiter, the bright spot toward the center of the photo, is also visible in the background.
The photo was shared at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union earlier this week.
“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…
The post Behold, the closest-ever photo of a coronal streamer appeared first on FeedBox.