The Parker Solar Probe was launched in 2018 to explore the mysterious world of the brightest star in our solar system. Named after American solar astrophysicist Eugine Parker, the spacecraft is working to unravel the mysteries of our Sun. It will fly through the Sun’s atmosphere as close as 3.8 million miles to our star’s surface, well within the orbit of Mercury and more than seven times closer than any spacecraft has come before.
The spacecraft will fly close enough to the Sun to watch the solar wind speed up from subsonic to supersonic, and it will fly through the birthplace of the highest-energy solar particles.
Nasa said that to perform these unprecedented investigations, the spacecraft and instruments are being protected from the Sun’s heat by a 4.5-inch-thick carbon-composite shield, which can withstand temperatures outside the spacecraft that reach nearly 1,377 degrees Celsius.
