Why is it important for humanity to touch the sun’s atmosphere for the first time – 12/16/2021
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“For centuries, humanity has only been able to observe this atmosphere from afar. Now we’re finally here,” said Nicola Fox, director of NASA’s Heliophysics Division, on Tuesday. “Mankind has touched the sun.”
This was really an important step for astronomical research. Studying this surface can help us understand how the Sun emits charged particles, which can cause problems for satellites and space explorers, and even predict such eruptions.
“This achievement not only provides us with deeper insights into the evolution of our sun, and its effects on our solar system, and teaches us more about stars in the rest of the universe,” Thomas said. RebookNASA Science Mission Manual Coordinator.
It’s also a step toward understanding other stars outside our solar system. “It’s a stellar phenomenon, not just a solar one,” said Kelly Couric, of the team behind the Parker spacecraft, which is expected to orbit close to the sun by 2025, repeatedly breaking its own records.
It is the fastest moving spacecraft and the closest to the sun.
A Sunda ParkerAnd NASA officially touched the sun’s atmosphere for the first time in history in April, but only this week scientists from the US space agency announced this week. It took them months to obtain and confirm the ship’s data.
Launched in 2018, it took a journey through the outer layer of the sun’s atmosphere, known as the corona. During the dive, he collected samples of particles and magnetic fields. It was 13 million kilometers from the Sun’s surface when it “dipped” in and out of the corona at least three times, each with a smooth transition, according to the scientists.
In 2019, the probe discovered that magnetic structures in the solar wind, called zigzags, often occur near the star, but how and where they formed remains a mystery.
When the probe’s distance from the Sun was halved, Parker passed close enough to determine where these structures originated: the solar surface.
Unlike Earth, the Sun does not have a solid surface but an extremely hot atmosphere, made of solar material bound to it by gravity and magnetic forces. Heat and pressure push this material away from the Sun until gravity and magnetic fields are too weak to contain it.
This phenomenon gives rise to the solar wind, a continuous flow of energetic particles emitted from the solar corona, which can affect activities on Earth, from satellites to telecommunications.
Future dives into the solar atmosphere will help scientists better understand the origins of the solar wind and how it is heated and accelerated through space, said Nour Al-Rawafi of Johns Hopkins University and a project scientist for the Parker spacecraft.
The first pass through the crown, which only lasted a few hours, is one of many passes planned during the mission. The probe will continue to approach the Sun and advance in the corona until a major final orbit in 2025.
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