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PARKER SOLAR PROBE Mission Overview

Parker Solar Probe is a NASA mission that will swoop to within 4 million miles of the Sun's surface, facing heat and radiation like no spacecraft before it. Launched on Aug. 12, 2018, Parker Solar Probe is providing new data on solar activity and make critical contributions to our ability to forecast major space-weather events that impact life on Earth.

In 2017, the mission was renamed for Eugene Parker, the S. Chandrasekhar Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus, Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Chicago.

In the 1950s, Parker proposed a number of concepts about how stars - including our Sun - give off energy. He called this cascade of energy the solar wind, and he described an entire complex system of plasmas, magnetic fields, and energetic particles that make up this phenomenon. Parker also theorized an explanation for the superheated solar atmosphere, the corona, which is - contrary to what was expected by physics laws - hotter than the surface of the Sun itself. This is the first NASA mission that has been named for a living individual. A brief description of the mission and its objectives can be found in :

Fox, N.J. et al. (2016), The Solar Probe Plus Mission: Humanity's First Visit to Our Star, Space Science Reviews, Volume 204, Issue 1-4, pp.1-21, doi:10.1007/s11214-015-0211-6

The official website of the missions is : http://parkersolarprobe.jhuapl.edu/

PARKER SOLAR PROBE Mission Objectives

NASA's Parker Solar Probe mission will revolutionize our understanding of the Sun. Parker Solar Probe is providing new data on solar activity and make critical contributions to our ability to forecast major space-weather events that impact life on Earth. The primary science goals for the mission are to trace the flow of energy and understand the heating of the solar corona and to explore what accelerates the solar wind. Parker Solar Probe provides a statistical survey of the outer corona.

Parker Solar Probe has three detailed science objectives:

• Trace the flow of energy that heats and accelerates the solar corona and solar wind.
• Determine the structure and dynamics of the plasma and magnetic fields at the sources of the solar wind.
• Explore mechanisms that accelerate and transport energetic particles.