Parker Solar Probe: Explore the Sun

Human space exploration helps to address fundamental questions about our place in the Universe and the history of our solar system. Can Parker Solar Probe provide a solution to this? What is its importance to study? Does India have any similar projects? Read here.

We’ve reached the pinnacle of our solar system exploration, right? We still have some restrictions, such as not exploring the sun yet.

Discovery is a series of small planetary missions selected and funded by NASA to address key science questions about the solar system and to unlock the mysteries of our solar system.

Let us discuss everything about the mission that unlocks the mystery of the Sun.

Also read: Space missions in 2024

Why is Parker Solar Probe in the News?

On August 12, 2022, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe completed four years in service. It is part of NASA’s “Living with a Star” program that explores different aspects of the Sun-Earth system.

NASA said the probe will “revolutionize our understanding of the Sun” by gathering data on the Sun’s atmosphere. It is also the closest a manmade object has ever come to the Sun.

Also read: Eclipse: Solar vs Lunar – Explained

Key Features of Parker Solar Probe

• NASA’s historic Parker Solar Probe mission will transform our understanding of the sun, where altering conditions can spread throughout the solar system, influencing Earth and other planets.
• The Parker Solar Probe mission’s principal scientific goals are to investigate how energy and heat move across the solar corona, as well as what accelerates the solar wind and solar energetic particles.
• Parker Solar Probe will journey through the sun’s atmosphere, closer to the surface than any previous spacecraft, enduring extreme heat and radiation — and eventually delivering humanity with the closest-ever observations of a star.
• Parker Solar Probe will use Venus’ gravity during seven flybys over roughly seven years to progressively push its orbit closer to the sun to unravel the mysteries of the sun’s atmosphere. The spacecraft will fly through the sun’s atmosphere as close to 3.9 million miles from our star’s surface as possible, well within Mercury’s orbit and more than seven times closer than any previous probe.
• The spacecraft and equipment will be shielded from the Sun’s heat by a 4.5-inch-thick (11.43-cm) carbon-composite shield, which will have to survive temperatures outside the spacecraft of about 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit (1,377 degrees Celsius).

Parker Solar Probe: Aim

• To trace how energy and heat move through the solar corona.
• To explore what accelerates the solar wind and solar energetic particles.
• Determine the structure and dynamics of magnetic fields at solar wind sources.
• Explore the role of dusty plasma near the Sun in the generation of solar wind and energetic particles.

Why study corona?

• The corona is hotter than the sun’s surface. The corona generates solar wind, which is a continuous flow of charged particles that pervades the solar system.
• Unpredictable solar winds disrupt our planet’s magnetic field and potentially disrupt Earth’s communications systems.
• NASA expects that the discoveries will help scientists predict changes in the Earth’s space environment.

Importance of the Study

• As a dynamic and magnetically active star, the Sun is significantly more complex than meets the eye.
•  The Sun’s atmosphere constantly sends forth magnetized material, encircling the Solar System far beyond Pluto’s orbit and impacting every country along the way.
• The corona generates solar wind, which is a continuous flow of charged particles that pervades the solar system.
• Unpredictable solar winds cause disturbances in our planet’s magnetic field and can play havoc with communications technology on the earth.
• The probe’s results will allow scientists to foresee changes in the Earth’s space environment.

What part of this mission will ‘touch’ the Sun?

The Solar Probe Cup, often known as “the bravest little instrument,” is a sensor that will reach beyond the heat shield to collect samples of the Sun’s atmosphere.
When the probe makes its closest approach to the sun, sampling the solar wind and effectively touching the sun, the cup will glow red.

Significance of Parker Solar Probe

•  The Sun is the only star we can study closely. By studying this star we live with, we learn more about stars throughout the universe.
• The Sun provides light and heat to all living things on Earth. The more we learn about it, the more we can grasp how life evolved on Earth.
• The Sun also has less obvious effects on Earth. It is the source of the solar wind, which is a flow of ionized gases from the Sun that travels past the Earth at more than 500 kilometers per second (a million miles per hour).
• Solar wind disturbances jolt Earth’s magnetic field and push energy into the radiation belts, as part of a broader series of changes in near-Earth space known as space weather.
• Space weather can alter satellite orbits, decrease their lifespan, and interfere with onboard electronics. The more we understand what causes space weather and how to predict it, the better we can safeguard the satellites on which we rely.
• The solar wind also occupies a large portion of the solar system, dominating the space environment far beyond Earth. As we move spacecraft and personnel further from home, we must comprehend the space environment in the same way that early sailors needed to understand the ocean.

India’s similar project: Aditya L1

India belongs to the select group of countries that have developed indigenous space technology. Aditya L1 is India’s first solar mission.

• The Aditya mission is envisioned as a 400kg spacecraft carrying one payload, the Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC), and is scheduled to launch in an 800 km low earth orbit to research the solar corona.
• It will be created in partnership with the Indian Space Scientific Organization (ISRO) and numerous Indian research institutes and will be launched by ISRO sometime between 2019 and 2020.
• Objectives: It will investigate the sun’s outermost layers, the corona, and the chromospheres, as well as collect data on coronal mass ejection, which will help anticipate space weather.
• Significance of the mission: The Aditya mission data will be extremely useful in distinguishing between competing hypotheses for the origin of solar storms, as well as restricting how the storms evolve and what course they travel across interplanetary space from the Sun to the Earth.
• Position of the satellite: To acquire the finest research from the sun, continuous observation without occultation/eclipse is preferable, hence the Aditya-L1 satellite will be put in the halo orbit around the sun-earth system’s Lagrangian point 1 (L1).

Structure of Sun

• The solar interior, from the inside out, is made up of the core, radiative zone, and convective zone.
• The solar atmosphere above consists of the photosphere, chromosphere, and corona.
• Beyond that is the solar wind, an outflow of gas from the corona.

Photosphere: The photosphere is the bright outer layer of the Sun that emits most of the radiation. The photosphere is an extremely uneven surface. The effective temperature on the outer side of the photosphere is 6000°K (11,000°F).

Chromosphere: Just above the photosphere is the chromosphere. It is a relatively thin layer of burning gases.

Sunspot: A dark patch on the surface of the Sun is known as a sunspot. Sunspots look like dark regions because they are around 1500° colder than the chromospheres around them. The individual sunspot has a lifetime ranging from a few days to a few months. Each spot has a black centre, known as the umbra, and a brighter zone, known as the penumbra, surrounding it. It has been proposed that the Sun is 1% cooler when there is no spot and that this change in solar energy may alter Earth’s temperatures.

Solar Wind: Stream of energetic, charged particles, principally electrons, and protons, erupting from the Sun at speeds of up to 900 km/s and temperatures of one million degrees (Celsius). It is made of plasma.

Solar flares: Produced due to magnetic anomalies. A magnetic storm on the Sun appears as a bright spot, as well as a gaseous surface eruption. Solar flares are explosions caused by high magnetic fields in sunspot-producing active areas.  As solar flares pass through the corona, they heat its gas to temperatures ranging from 10 to 20 million degrees Celsius.

Corona: A corona is the characteristic plasma atmosphere that surrounds the Sun and other celestial bodies. The corona of the Sun stretches millions of kilometres into space and is most visible during a total solar eclipse.

Lagrangian Points

• The gravitational forces and orbital motion of the spacecraft, Sun, and planets interact at five additional areas around a planet’s orbit, creating a stable location for observations.
• These points are known as Lagrangian or ‘L’ points, after the 18th-century Italian astronomer and mathematician Joseph-Louis Lagrange (born Giuseppe Luigi Lagrancia).
• It is the point at which the Sun’s and Earth’s attractions become equal. This point is not subject to gravitational attraction.
• A satellite at this point would not get deflected but the data captured will be accurate.
  ○ L-1: The first point L1 lies between Earth and the Sun at about 1 million miles from Earth.
  ○ L-2: It also lies a million miles from Earth but in the opposite direction of the Sun. With the Earth, Moon, and Sun behind it, at this point, the spacecraft can get a clear view of deep space.
  ○ L-3: L3 lies behind the Sun, opposite Earth’s orbit.
  ○ L-4 & L-5: These stable points lie along Earth’s orbit at 60 degrees ahead of and behind Earth, forming the apex of two equilateral triangles that have large masses as their vertices.

For detailed information about the Sun read: Sun: Structure, Composition, and Features

How does the coronavirus cause solar winds?

The corona reaches far into space. It is responsible for the solar wind that passes through our solar system. The warmth of the corona causes its particles to move at breakneck speed. These speeds are so great that the particles can escape the gravity of the Sun.

Many NASA missions have continued to focus on this complex space environment defined by our star — a field of research known as heliophysics.

Parker Solar Probe is going to answer questions about solar physics that we have puzzled over for more than six decades.

In news

UPSC Previous Year Questions

Ques 1: Consider the following statements regarding NASA’s Mars 2020 Mission:

1. The space shit will land on Jezero Crater.
2. It also carries a Mars Helicopter to test whether the helicopter can fly in the sparse atmosphere on Mars.

Which of the following statements is/are correct?

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Ans: c

Ques 2: Consider the following statements regarding NASA’s Mars 2020 Mission:

1. The space shit will land on Jezero Crater.
2. It also carries a Mars Helicopter to test whether the helicopter can fly in the sparse atmosphere on Mars.

Which of the following statements is/are correct?

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Ans: c

To know more about the Achievements of Indians in Science & Technology click here.

Article Written by: Remya