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Here’s Why NASA Will Fly The Parker Solar Probe Into The Sun In 2025

NASA is set to fly the Parker Solar Probe (shortened as PSP) into the Sun’s orbit in 2025 after its launch in 2018. While the spacecraft will still be ‘very far’ from the sun, it will be as close as any device has ever gotten.

 

According to its Wikipedia page, the spacecraft is worth an estimated amount of $1.5 billion. This spacecraft, named the Parker Solar Probe, will be deployed to study solar flares from a close distance.

 

It will fly as close to the sun as 3.83 million miles, this is seven times as close as any space object has gotten to the sun. The robotic spacecraft has been in space since 2018 after the Applied Physics Laboratory manufactured it.

 

The PSP will enter the surface of the sun called the Corona. This area has a temperature measuring between 0ne million to five million degrees Fahrenheit. Its major job is to study solar flares occurring on this surface that are big enough to swallow a planet whole.

 

While they happen far from the earth, there is an additional danger to their existence; they produce something called Coronal Mass Ejections.

 

These ejections in-turn fire a surge of highly-charged particles into space. They can fry all electric circuits that it comes in contact with. This means that if they are to hit other spacecraft like satellites, they could disrupt important activities on earth.

 

Such activities as the internet could be abruptly cut off, thus, tampering with life as we know it.

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In addition, the report mentions that an Astrophysicist, Daniel N. Baker, had found some other effects if it struck the earth directly. Baker, in 2014, postulates that coronal mass ejections striking the earth can destroy everything plugged into sockets at once.

 

It is also disturbing when it is confirmed that such a thing has happened before in 1859. It caused the largest geomagnetic storm on record.

 

Further, scientists predict that there is about 12% chance of this happening within the next 10 years as well.

 

To prevent it from melting, its outside is built with a white reflective alumina surface. This allows it to reflect more heat than it absolves. Thus, giving it the ability to survive incident solar intensity 520 times the intensity at Earth’s orbit.

 

The scientific instruments are located in the central portion of the shield’s shadow where radiation from the sun is blocked.

 

It will require a total of 24 dives to complete its research. The probe will start making its first close passes of the sun in 2024. It will have to swing around Venus several times to get the speed and orbits to get closer to the sun.

 

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Onwuasoanya Obinna

A reader of books and stringer of words. Passionate about Science and Tech. When not writing or reading he is surfing the web and Tweeting.

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