Parker Solar Probe: set the controls for the edge of the sun…
by Stuart Clark from on (#3VBAW)
Nasa's new probe is designed to enter our star's corona, investigating solar weather and answering the questions we have yet to ask
Some time during the early hours of 4 August, the Floridian night will be temporarily banished. One of the most powerful rockets in the world, a Delta IV Heavy, will ignite. Its fiery breath with bathe Cape Canaveral in light and thunder.
Riding the rocket will be Parker Solar Probe (PSP), on one of the most audacious space missions that has ever been conceived. PSP will fly closer to the sun than any previous mission. It will dip into the sun's atmosphere, where it will have to tolerate temperatures of around 1,400C (seven times hotter than a kitchen oven).
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