Parker Solar Probe ‘touches’ sun for first time...

[Rick]

Nasa's solar probe 'touches' sun for first time, dives into unexplored atmosphere

A Nasa spacecraft has officially "touched" the sun, plunging through the unexplored solar atmosphere known as the corona.

More: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/dec/14/nasa-solar-probe-touches-sun-first-time

[Rick]

Humanity has officially touched the Sun (or, at least, one of its probes has)

NASA's Parker solar probe has become the first spacecraft to reach the Sun, after solar boffins announced the feat at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union.

The event actually happened way back on April 28, but it took months before the data made its way back to Earth and a few more before scientists could confirm the event. But now NASA has said, yep, that definitely happened – one of humanity's instruments has touched our local star.

More: https://www.theregister.com/2021/12/15/humanity_has_officially_touched_the/

[Rick]

To Touch the Sun

See https://physics.aps.org/articles/v14/178

[Rick]

Parker Solar Probe uncovers mystery of 'fast' solar winds

A team of researchers led by UC Berkeley's Stuart Bale and James Drake of the University of Maryland-College Park said they've detected streams of high-energy particles that match the supergranulation flows within the Sun's coronal holes.

On most of the Sun's surface the corona keeps magnetic field lines looping back onto the surface. Holes in the corona are spaces where the field lines don't loop back, instead ejecting high-energy particles into space at intense speeds. We already knew that, but to understand more we had to fly closer to the Sun than even the Parker probe had managed to make it until recently.

"It's like seeing jets of water emanating from a showerhead through the blast of water hitting you in the face," the institution said of the winds being generated at the surface.

More: https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/13/parker_solar_probe_wind/

[Rick]

There's a little video from the Parker Solar Probe in APOD today: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240219.html

[Carole]

Pretty amazing.