(ORDO NEWS) — NASA has officially acknowledged that its Parker Solar Probe has sunk below the top of the Sun’s atmosphere, known as the corona, and has “touched the Sun” , according to the agency.
It is worth noting that this significant “touch” occurred back in April of this year, but it took months for the data to be transmitted to Earth , so that the researchers could confirm or deny their findings. The results were announced on December 14 at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union.
“Touching the sun with the Parker Solar Probe is a monumental moment in solar history and a truly remarkable feat,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Missions Office.
Parker Solar Probe – Sun God
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe mission is not only “touching” the star, but also new possibilities for understanding the solar wind and its magnetic field. It is also a tremendous opportunity to explore phenomena that cannot be explored from afar.
“This is what flying through the sun’s crown looks like,” Irish journalist Paul Byrne wrote on his Twitter account. “We’ve never seen this before, but the Parker Solar Probe showed us this on its closest flyby around the Sun, when it was just 13 million kilometers above the surface of our star.”
“And pay attention to the Milky Way in the background…” he added.
It’s no secret that even the Sun’s atmosphere is a very harsh environment. To help Parker Solar Probe survive as it approaches a star, engineers have developed a special carbon heat shield with an extremely high melting point.
In addition, they even coated the outer part of the shield with crushed animal bones, which exhibit high elasticity and an amazing ability to effectively absorb and reflect solar heat.
So yes, we have a bone-covered spacecraft that literally touched the sun.
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