5 New Discoveries from NASA's Parker Solar Probe

  • Released Wednesday, December 4, 2019
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Music Credit: Smooth as Glass by The Freeharmonic Orchestra

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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.

Artist interpretation of a dust-free zone around the Sun. Credit: NASA Goddard/Scott Wiessinger

Artist rendition of a small scale particle event on the Sun. Credit: NASA Goddard/Adriana Manrique Gutierrez and Scott Wiessinger

Artist rendition of a small particle event becoming too spread out to be detected from Earth. Credit: NASA Goddard/Scott Wiessinger

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NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

This page was originally published on Wednesday, December 4, 2019.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 1:45 PM EDT.

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