US space agency, NASA has launched its mission to send a satellite closer to the Sun. The Parker Solar Probe Delta-IV Heavy rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida on Sunday.
3-2-1… and we have liftoff of Parker #SolarProbe atop @ULAlaunch’s #DeltaIV Heavy rocket. Tune in as we broadcast our mission to “touch” the Sun: https://t.co/T3F4bqeATB pic.twitter.com/Ah4023Vfvn
— NASA (@NASA) August 12, 2018
The probe that aims to dip directly into our star’s outer atmosphere, or corona; is set to become the fastest-moving manmade object in history. Its data promises to crack longstanding mysteries about the Sun’s behaviour. It will dip inside the tenuous atmosphere, sampling conditions to just 6.16 million km from the Sun’s broiling surface.
Earlier today, just under an hour after the launch, NASA confirmed that the spacecraft had successfully separated and the probe had been released into space.
It is the first spacecraft to be named after a living person – astrophysicist Eugene Parker, 91, who first described solar wind in 1958.
“His name belongs there,” @Dr_ThomasZ says of the decision to name our Parker #SolarProbe spacecraft in honor of Dr. Eugene N. Parker who theorized the existence of the solar wind. Watch our countdown to the 3:31am ET liftoff: https://t.co/T3F4bqeATB pic.twitter.com/9CixXgZPoN
— NASA (@NASA) August 12, 2018
After a failed attempt on August 11, the agency had to miss its 65-minute weather window.
The spacecraft launched at 3:31 am ET to begin its journey to the Sun and uncover solar mysteries.
Hours before the rise of the very star it will study, our #ParkerSolarProbe spacecraft launched from @NASAKennedy at 3:31am ET to begin its journey to the Sun and uncover solar mysteries. Details: https://t.co/5O4r9xljva pic.twitter.com/JXerO4H86x
— NASA (@NASA) August 12, 2018
It will zip past Venus in six weeks and make the first rendezvous with the Sun a further six weeks after that. Over the course of seven years, Parker will make 24 loops around our star to study the physics of the corona, the place where much of the important activity that affects the Earth seems to originate.
According to BBC, Dr Nicky Fox, the British-born project scientist who is affiliated to the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory explained, “I realise that might not sound that close, but imagine the Sun and the Earth were a meter apart. Parker Solar Probe would be just 4cm away from the Sun.”
“We’ll also be the fastest human-made object ever, travelling around the Sun at speeds of up to 690,000km/h (430,000mph) – New York to Tokyo in under a minute!” Nicky Fox added.