“It will get into such streams of heat that it will simply burn out.”
The American space probe named after Eugene Parker passed through the sun’s corona for the first time. This was announced on Wednesday by the press service of the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
The Parker Solar Probe launched into the Sun in 2018. Coming closer and closer to the luminary, he makes new discoveries. So in 2019, Parker discovered that near the Sun there are many magnetic zigzag structures of the solar wind, called “reverse”.
“The probe now detects the characteristics of the magnetic layer of the solar atmosphere, which no one else has done,” said Noor Rauafi, a research associate for the Parker project at the Johns Hopkins Laboratory of Applied Physics. “We see evidence of magnetic field data, solar wind data in the corona.”
Unlike the Earth, the Sun does not have a solid surface. But it has an overheated atmosphere made of solar material. The point at which the temperature and pressure are so high that they cannot hold the atmosphere is called the “Alfven critical surface”. It is with her that the solar wind begins. It carries with it the magnetic field of the Sun to the Earth and beyond.
Until now, researchers did not know exactly where the Alfvén critical surface is. Based on distant images of the crown, it is estimated to be between 4.3 and 8.6 million miles. And on April 28, 2021, during the eighth flyby past the Sun (the Parker Solar Probe has been orbiting the Sun for a long time), it discovered signs of the Alfven surface at an altitude of 18.8 solar radius (about 8.1 million miles or 13 million km) above surface of the star. That is, it turns out that the probe entered the solar atmosphere, flying through the corona.
It is assumed that by the end of 2024, the probe should enter orbit with a perihelion of 6.2 million km from the solar surface. At the same time, the heat shield of the probe will warm up to 1370 degrees Celsius, that is, approximately three times more than the temperature on the side of Mercury illuminated by the Sun.
The significance of this event for MK was commented on by Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Head of the Laboratory for Theoretical and Experimental Study of the Solar Wind and Its Effect on the Near-Earth Space of the IKI RAS Yuri Ermolaev:
– I should immediately clarify what the term “crown”, which Parker flew, means. This is essentially the same solar wind that extends beyond the solar system. With each turn, the probe descends lower and lower. According to the latest NASA publication, it has reached a certain point in the solar corona, where it was assumed that solar matter turns into solar wind.
– What will happen after it passes through the point 6.2 million km from the surface of the Sun, as its creators plan?
– It will get into such streams of heat that it will simply burn out.
– Is there a similar project in Russia?
– Our “Interheliosond” – a complex of studies of the Sun from a close distance has been developed for 20 years … It was planned to launch it towards the Sun in 2015. However, due to a reduction in funding for the Federal Space Program, the launch was postponed to 2025.
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