NASA will launch a probe Saturday that will “touch” the sun.
Launching on a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, the Parker Solar Probe “will be the first spacecraft to fly directly through the Sun’s corona – the part of the solar atmosphere visible during an eclipse – to answer questions about solar physics that have puzzled scientists for decades,” the space agency explained in a press release.
“Gathering information about fundamental processes near the Sun can help improve our understanding of how our solar system’s star changes the space environment, where space weather can affect astronauts, interfere with satellite orbits, or damage spacecraft electronics,” NASA continued.
The probe will come within 3.8 million miles of the sun — seven times closer than the previous spacecraft, Helios 2, that came within 27 miles of the sun in 1976.
Protected by a 4.5-inch-thick carbon-composite shield, the spacecraft will need to withstand temperatures up to 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit, NASA said.
To make it’s approach the sun, the probe will use Venus’ gravity during seven flybys over nearly seven years to gradually bring its orbit closer to the sun.
“At closest approach, Parker Solar Probe hurtles around the Sun at approximately 430,000 mph (700,000 kph). That’s fast enough to get from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C., in one second,” NASA said.
[Also read: NASA releases list of astronauts who will travel to space from US soil]
