NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has made history by capturing the closest-ever images of the sun’s corona, offering a never-before-seen view of this critical region of space weather. The probe, which reached a distance of 3.8 million miles from the solar surface, entered the outermost layer of the sun’s atmosphere and captured stunning footage using its Wide-Field Imager for Solar Probe (WISPR).
The new images reveal an important boundary in the sun’s atmosphere called the heliospheric current sheet, where the sun’s magnetic field changes direction. The WISPR also captured collisions between multiple coronal mass ejections (CMEs), which are major drivers of space weather, and their interactions with the solar wind.
These discoveries help scientists understand how CMEs merge together and provide insights into the origins of space weather threats to Earth. NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has been instrumental in closing knowledge gaps on the sun’s corona, identifying widespread presence of “switchbacks” around 14.7 million miles from the sun and linking them to the origins of solar wind.
The probe’s heat shield, designed to withstand extreme temperatures, played a crucial role in its historic flyby. With temperatures reaching several million degrees near the sun, the heat shield kept instrumentation safe by absorbing only 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit (about 1,400 degrees Celsius) from the surface.
These remarkable images and discoveries mark a significant step forward in NASA’s understanding of the sun’s corona and its impact on space weather.
Source: https://www.space.com/astronomy/sun/nasa-just-took-the-closest-ever-images-of-the-sun-and-they-are-incredible-video