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posted by martyb on Sunday August 05 2018, @11:55PM   Printer-friendly
from the brilliant! dept.

Submitted via IRC for BoyceMagooglyMonkey

Next week, NASA is scheduled to send human technology closer to a star than ever before. What they learn could change our understanding of, well, the whole galaxy.

The Parker Solar Probe is a mission set to orbit the Sun at just 3.8 million miles. Compare that to Earth's average distance of 93 million miles, or Mercury's average distance of 36 million miles. The spacecraft will need to shield itself from temperatures as high as 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit in order to find answers to the many questions scientists still have about our Sun and stars in general.

"The message is simple," Jim Garvin, chief scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, told Gizmodo. "By understanding our Sun in this way, [it will] connect the dots between how the Sun works, how it affects the Earth and other worlds throughout the Solar System, and... how we look at planetary systems around other stars."

[...] The probe is at Cape Canaveral, loaded into a Delta IV heavy rocket. Following its August 11-at-the-earliest launch, it will hurtle towards the Solar System's center at speeds as fast as 430,000 miles per hour, according to a NASA fact sheet. It will pass our neighboring planet Venus seven times for a gravitationally assisted slow down, studying our gassy neighbor along the way, before arriving at its final solar orbit.

[...] The mission comes with extreme challenges that the project engineers have done their best to prepare for. An 8-foot-wide, 4.5-inch-thick carbon-composite shield protects the probe, keeping its instruments at a cozy 85 degrees Fahrenheit, according to NASA. The outside face of the shield is coated with white ceramic paint to further reflect heat away from the probe.

Source: https://gizmodo.com/nasas-sun-probe-set-to-launch-next-week-on-its-journey-1828053654


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 06 2018, @09:09AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 06 2018, @09:09AM (#717769)

    For a space-related news piece it is sure full of imperials.

  • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday August 06 2018, @03:25PM

    by Freeman (732) on Monday August 06 2018, @03:25PM (#717865) Journal

    That's because every empire wants to own the sun.

    --
    Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"