NASA's Parker Probe Returns Clues to Mysteries About Solar Wind and Sun's Atmosphere
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Since it launched last year, NASA's Parker Solar Probe has made three dives toward the sun as it reached the fastest speed ever clocked by a human-built vehicle. Scientists released the mission's first batch of findings Wednesday, revealing that the dynamics of our star are even weirder than once imagined.
Four papers published in the journal Nature describe what the spacecraft observed during its first two flybys, as it passed within about 15 million miles of the surface of the sun. That is about half the distance that the planet Mercury orbits the sun.
"All of this brand-new information about how the way our star works is going to help us understand how the sun drives change in the space environment throughout our solar system," said Nicola Fox, director of the heliophysics division at NASA, during a telephone news conference Wednesday.
The information could help scientists develop ways to provide advance warning of solar storms that could knock out satellites and electrical grids or endanger the health of astronauts in orbit.
The sun is essentially a big ball of hydrogen and helium, and for something that we see every day, it remains a complex ball of mystery.
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