The launch of the NASA probe to our star is scheduled for August 2018.
The first reaction of any normal person: Americans are probably joking. Immediately I remember the legendary anecdote of the Soviet era about the space initiative of Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev and the toast from the "Caucasian Captive" about a small but proud bird that flew to the Sun itself and burned there. And how not to get burned in the monstrous hell? Is NASA a sensible business?
It turns out that the flight of the probe to the luminary is by no means a joke. The Americans have been hatching these plans since 2005. Then the project was called Solar Probe. In 2008, it was finalized and renamed Solar Probe Plus.
Recently, the mission received a new - final - name Parker Solar Probe in honor of the famous American astrophysicist Eugene Parker. By the way, he is alive, celebrated his 90th anniversary and continues to unravel the mysteries of the Sun, starting to do this back in the 50s of the last century.
NASA announced the launch of the mission and its renaming at the University of Chicago. Parker himself is in the center chair
The Parker Solar Probe was designed and built by experts from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland as part of NASA's Living With a Star program.
Initially, the start was scheduled for 2015. But it is delayed for 3 years. It is possible that scientists are "guessing" so that the probe is near the Sun during the period of its maximum activity. To catch the riot of the sun and fall into many solar storms.
The probe should fly for 7 years - at least until 2025.
Promotional video:
The gravity of Venus will help to achieve the goal of the Parker Solar Probe, past which it will fly 7 times, then approaching the star, then moving away from it.
Approximate flight pattern of the probe
The minimum distance from the Sun will be 6.4 million kilometers. It's very close - Mercury is 10 times further away. From the probe, our star's fireball will look 23 times larger than it appears from Earth.
- Parker Solar Probe will practically enter the atmosphere of the Sun, - promises Parker himself, - will visit where no one has ever been - in a completely unexplored region of the solar system.
According to NASA, the Parker Solar Probe would like to track the movement of energy and heat in the solar corona and the solar wind. And get answers to key questions in solar physics.
Scientists do not understand why the outer atmosphere of the star is much hotter than its visible surface? They do not know where, in fact, the solar wind blows, affecting both the Earth and our entire solar system. What exactly raises and speeds it up.
The temperature on the sun's surface barely exceeds 6 thousand degrees Logically, it should decrease with distance from the star. But the temperature, on the contrary, is rising. Hundreds of times. The outer atmosphere of the Sun - the very corona - is heated up to a million degrees. This misunderstanding has been puzzling for over 60 years, since it was first discovered.
There is a mystery in the solar wind. This hot stream of charged particles, rushing from our star at a speed of several million kilometers per hour, "washes" our entire system. Planets, comets, asteroids "feel" its bursts. And next to the Sun - at the surface - there is no wind.
Solar corona mysteries have puzzled heliophysicists for over 60 years
NASA believes that it will finally work out. Devices for the so-called coronal tomography, cameras and a telescope, which will transmit 3D images of the Sun obtained from a minimum distance, will help. The pictures are expected to be amazing.
It is possible that the information collected will contribute to the fact that heliophysicists and astronomers will finally learn to predict solar flares.
They - these outbreaks - scientists have become very much afraid of lately. They predict very powerful, capable of "cutting off" electricity throughout the Earth. How right are they? We'll find out in about 7 years.
REFERENCE
Not a small bird, but not a big one either
The probe is by no means a small bird. But also not very big - with a "parquet" SUV. The apparatus is refractory. Must withstand heating at 1400 - 1500 degrees Celsius. This is almost the melting point of iron. It will be protected from the heat of the sun by a 11.43 centimeters thick carbon composite coating and a shield made of the same material. Under it, as if under an umbrella, the apparatus will hide from both scorching rays and hard X-rays. The power supply is from solar panels. Which is natural for such a mission. Battery panels are rotatable. Their tilt angle will decrease as they approach the Sun. And part of the batteries is to hide in the shadow of the shield.
The researchers assure that the temperature inside the probe, where the equipment is installed, will be room temperature.
The probe, sent to hell, is protected by a thick refractory shell and screen
In addition to instruments, the probe will be equipped with a telescope and cameras that transmit images in 3D. Experts hope to examine in detail the processes occurring on the surface of the luminary.
Parker Solar Probe will fly close to the Sun at a speed of 700 thousand kilometers per hour.
On July 31, 2018, “the start window will open” - the most favorable period for the launch will come. The window will be open for 20 days. It is planned that during this time - on one of the days of August - Parker Solar Probe and go to the Sun.
BY THE WAY
Sorry for the bird
… and then one small but very proud bird said:
- Personally, I will fly directly to the Sun! And she began to rise higher and higher, but very soon she burned her wings and fell to the very bottom of the deepest gorge! So let's drink to the fact that each of us, no matter how high he ascends, would never break away from the team!
(From the comedy "Prisoner of the Caucasus".)
ANCIENT ANECDOTE (1969)
- The Americans have landed on the moon. How shall we answer, comrades? - asks Brezhnev members of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee. And he himself suggests: - We will send astronauts to the Sun!
- Leonid Ilyich! They will burn, - they object to him. - Look how bright the Sun is.
- I see, not a fool. I figured it out: they will fly at night.
The Americans were going to fly directly to the Sun:
VLADIMIR LAGOVSKY