Dear MEL Topic Readers,
Nasa makes history with closest-ever approach to Sun
A happy new year to you. Did you have a chance to see the first sunrise of the year?
Named after an American solar and plasma physicist, the Parker Solar Probe is a NASA space probe launched in 2018 to observe the Sun’s outer corona. The 1m x 3m x 2.3m probe travels faster than any human-made object at nearly 700,000 km/h, fast enough to travel from London to New York in less than 30 seconds. It is protected by a thick carbon-composite shield to endure the Sun’s heat, as high as 1,400C, and radiation. On December 24, the probe successfully made its 22nd fly-by the Sun, the closest one about six million kilometers from the Sun’s surface. That was much more inner than Mercury’s orbit and was only four centimeters from the Sun if the Sun and the Earth's distance were one meter. But why do we need to study the Sun and its corona? Corona is mysterious but influential in our lives. Its temperature reaches over a million degrees while the Sun’s surface temperature is around 6,000C. Why? Also, the probe may find clues about the solar wind, the charged particles bursting from the corona, which affects electricity grids, electronic devices, and communication systems.
Read the article and learn about the solar probe that might help us understand our Sun and its corona better.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgrwdxpljyxo
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