Nasa will announce a new
and ambitious mission to the Sun, which will see one of the space
agency's solar probes fly closer to the Sun than
any other spacecraft ever has before. Nasa's historic Solar Probe Plus mission
will involve the spacecraft journeying directly into the Sun's atmosphere to
collect data that may help scientists unlock further space
mysteries.fdgetp[43
The space agency describes the mission as
its first ever forage into space to "touch the Sun." Nasa said that
in the course of its journey and orbit, the solar probe
will face extreme temperatures and radiation, the likes of which no other
spacecraft has ever experienced. In the face of such challenges, how does Nasa
plan to ensure success of the mission - and how close can the solar probe get
to the Sun?
Just how close will the solar probe get?
According to Nasa, the solar probe will fly as close as
6.2 million kilometres from the Sun, which is over seven times closer than any
other spacecraft has ever travelled.
This means the probe will face
temperatures as high as 1,377C and also encounter solar winds and "millions
of tons of highly magnetised material" erupting from the Sun's corona at
extreme speeds.
In order to ensure that the
spacecraft and its equipment remain functional even when experiencing such
extreme environments, Nasa designed the probe to come with a 4.5-inch-thick
carbon-composite shield to protect the spacecraft from the Sun's heat. The
solar-powered probe will also include solar arrays that have been designed to
retract and extend as the spacecraft travels toward or away from the Sun during
its orbit. The solar arrays are meant to ensure that the spacecraft and its
cargo remain operating at the proper temperatures and power levels
The
spacecraft's journey to the Sun will not be
straightforward. Instead, it will make seven Venus
fly-bys in the course of nearly seven years as it gradually settles into its
orbit around the Sun.
"At closest approach, Solar
Probe Plus will be hurtling around the Sun at approximately 450,000 miles per
hour. That's fast enough to get from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C., in one
second," Nasa said in a statement.
The
mission's objective
The primary objective for the
solar mission is to better understand how the Sun functions, which Nasa says
will also help scientists uncover the mysteries behind the so-far unpredictive space
weather. The space agency said that the data gathered by the solar probe will
"revolutionise our understanding of the Sun."
"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," Nasa
said. "This mission will provide insight on a critical link in the
Sun-Earth connection. Data will be key to understanding and, perhaps,
forecasting space weather."
What
equipment will the probe carry and how will it study the Sun?
The Solar Probe Plus will conduct
4 major investigations during its orbit around the Sun. The probe will carry
specific equipment for each of the investigations which will help it provide a
statistical survey of the Sun's outer corona.
The four investigations include a
field experiment, which will measure electric and magnetic fields, plasma
density, radio emissions and more. The integrated science investigation of the
Sun will observe the energetic electrons, protons and heavy ions in the Sun's
atmosphere. The wide-field imager, which is essentially a telescope, will take
pictures of the corona, inner heliosphere and solar winds and the Solar Wind
Electrons Alphas and Protons (SWEAP) Investigation will analyse the properties
of solar wind particles.
All of the various aspects of the
Sun that Nasa wants to study as part of its mission will help it discover more
about not just the Sun, but also about the connections between the Sun and the
Earth. Although Nasa says that the data gathered may bring up more questions
than answers, the mission will still play a critical role in providing valuable
information about the mysteries of space.
"Until we can explain what
is going on up close to the sun, we will not be able to accurately predict space
weather effects that can cause havoc at Earth," the space agency added.
Further details about the mission will be unveiled by
Nasa in its upcoming announcement on Wednesday.
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