NASA has gotten into the wolf’s mouth, the place where solar storms originate. The Parker solar probe equipment has just published the images closest to the sun that have ever been taken. It is the first time that humanity sees with this level of detail the ejections of coronal mass and the field where its magnetic polarity changes from north to south.
The Sun in the first -term term. When it took the images at the end of 2024, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe was only 6.1 million kilometers from the visible surface of the Sun: the photograph. That day, the probe not only became the fastest artificial object in history, with a speed of 692,000 km/h. He also used his WISPR camera to capture in detail the crown of the sun and the birth of the solar wind, the constant flow of loaded particles that bathes the entire solar system.
The cradle of the space climate. The most revolutionary of these images is that they allow to visualize the weltic current sheet, a gigantic and undulating “sewing” of the solar system that extends from the sun, marking the limit where the polarity of the magnetic field is invested. Seeing it so closely is an invaluable document to understand how the solar wind spreads.
In addition, the probe has managed to observe the collision and fusion of multiple coronal mass ejections in high resolution. “We are seeing the CMEs stacking on each other,” explains Angelos Vourlidas, scientist of the Wispr instrument. Understanding how they merge is key, since these mergers can create much more powerful and dangerous geomagnetic storms.
The mystery of switchbacks. The Parker mission is not just beating proximity and speed records. Its main objective is to solve enigmas that solar physicists have been trying to decipher. One of the biggest discoveries of the probe has been the abundance of the so -called ‘switchbacks’ or magnetic investments, folds in the magnetic field that invest their direction in short intervals, as if doing Zigzag.
Thanks to the approaches to the Parker solar probe, we now know that these structures originate on the visible surface of the sun and are one of the fast solar wind engines. Also that there are two types of slow solar wind. One seems to be born from large magnetic loops, while the other would come from coronal holes.
Touch the sun without melting. Approaching the sun so much poses an obvious question: how is it possible that the probe does not melt? The key is in the difference between temperature and heat. The solar crown has a temperature of millions of degrees, but it is a vacuum with a very low density. There are few particles, so, although they move very fast (high temperature), they do not transfer much energy (low heat). How to put your hand in a hot oven.
Even so, the ship needs protection. There its thermal shield of 2.4 meters in diameter made of a carbon compound comes into play. The shield is capable of supporting temperatures of up to 1,400 ° C on its outer face, while the body of the ship remains comfortable 30 ° C. Other exposed instruments are made of exotic materials such as molybdenum and tungsten, metal with the highest known fusion point: 3,422 ° C.
Image | POT
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