Why Won't it Melt? How NASA's Solar Probe will Survive the Sun

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    ID: 13282 Produced Video

    5 New Discoveries from NASA's Parker Solar Probe

    Dec. 4th, 2019
    (updated May 3rd, 2023)

    Music Credit: Smooth as Glass by The Freeharmonic OrchestraWatch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.Complete transcript available. || NASA's Parker Solar Probe mission has returned unprecedented data from near the Sun, culminating in new discoveries published on Dec. 4, 2019, in the journal Nature. Among the findings are new understandings of how the Sun's constant outflow of material, the solar wind, behaves. Seen near Earth — where it can interact with our planet's natural magnetic field and cause space weather effects that interfere with technology — the solar wind appears to be a relatively uniform flow of plasma. But Parker Solar Probe's observations reveal a complicated, active system not seen from Earth. ||

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  • 
    ID: 13457 Produced Video

    New Results from Mission to Touch the Sun Live Shots

    Dec. 4th, 2019
    (updated May 3rd, 2023)

    Read about the latest results HEREClick here for quick link to AUDIO interview with Eric ChristianClick here for quick link to canned interview with Aleida Higginson. Click here for quick link to canned interview with Nicholeen Viall. Click here for quick link to canned interview with Eric ChristianClick here for quick link to B-ROLL associated with this live shot. Click here for Education Outreach questions and answers with Eric ChristianClick here for quick link to Education Outreach questions and answers with Aleida Higginson. ||

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  • 
    ID: 12903 Produced Video

    Discovering the Sun’s Mysteriously Hot Atmosphere

    July 25th, 2018
    (updated May 3rd, 2023)

    Something mysterious is going on at the Sun. In defiance of all logic, its atmosphere gets much, much hotter the farther it stretches from the Sun’s blazing surface.Temperatures in the corona — the tenuous, outermost layer of the solar atmosphere — spike upwards of 2 million degrees Fahrenheit, while just 1,000 miles below, the underlying surface simmers at a balmy 10,000 F. How the Sun manages this feat remains one of the greatest unanswered questions in astrophysics; scientists call it the coronal heating problem. A new, landmark mission, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe — scheduled to launch no earlier than Aug. 11, 2018 — will fly through the corona itself, seeking clues to its behavior and offering the chance for scientists to solve this mystery.From Earth, as we see it in visible light, the Sun’s appearance — quiet, unchanging — belies the life and drama of our nearest star. Its turbulent surface is rocked by eruptions and intense bursts of radiation, which hurl solar material at incredible speeds to every corner of the solar system. This solar activity can trigger space weather events that have the potential to disrupt radio communications, harm satellites and astronauts, and at their most severe, interfere with power grids.Above the surface, the corona extends for millions of miles and roils with plasma, gases superheated so much that they separate into an electric flow of ions and free electrons. Eventually, it continues outward as the solar wind, a supersonic stream of plasma permeating the entire solar system. And so, it is that humans live well within the extended atmosphere of our Sun. To fully understand the corona and all its secrets is to understand not only the star that powers life on Earth, but also, the very space around us.Read more on NASA.gov. ||

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