Parker Science Result animations
- Visualizations by:
- Adriana Manrique Gutierrez
- Scientific consulting by:
- Adam Szabo
- Produced by:
- Genna Duberstein
- Technical support:
- Aaron E. Lepsch
- View full credits
Movies
- SWind_Texture_h264_4k_60fps.webm (3840x2160) [12.5 MB]
- SWind_Texture_h264_4k_60fps.mp4 (3840x2160) [24.7 MB]
- SWind_Texture_ProRes_4k_60fps.mov (3840x2160) [3.9 GB]
Images
- SWind_Texture_4k_0000_print.jpg (1024x576) [72.5 KB]
Frames
- frames/3840x2160_16x9_60p/SWind_Texture_4k/ (3840x2160) [52.0 KB]
The dynamic solar wind
Observed near Earth, the solar wind is a relatively uniform flow of plasma, with occasional turbulent tumbles. But by that point it’s traveled over ninety million miles — and the signatures of the Sun's exact mechanisms for heating and accelerating the solar wind are wiped out. Closer to the solar wind's source, Parker Solar Probe saw a much different picture: a complicated, active system.
Credit: NASA Goddard/CIL/Adriana Manrique Gutierrez
Movies
- SwitchbackSun_h264_4k_60fps.webm (3840x2160) [4.0 MB]
- SwitchbackSun_h264_4k_60fps.mp4 (3840x2160) [15.3 MB]
- SwitchbackSun_ProRes_4k_60fps.mov (3840x2160) [2.7 GB]
Images
- SwitchbackSun_4k_0000_print.jpg (1024x576) [59.2 KB]
- SwitchbackSun_4k_0000_thm.png (80x40) [4.9 KB]
- SwitchbackSun_4k_0000_searchweb.png (320x180) [65.4 KB]
Frames
- frames/3840x2160_16x9_60p/SwitchbackSun_4k/ (3840x2160) [32.0 KB]
Top-down view of Switchback Magnetic Fields
Parker indicated that the solar magnetic field embedded in the solar wind flips in the direction. These reversals — dubbed "switchbacks" — last anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes as they flow over Parker Solar Probe. During a switchback, the magnetic field whips back on itself until it is pointed almost directly back at the Sun.
Credit: NASA Goddard/CIL/Adriana Manrique Gutierrez
Movies
- SwitchbackCu_4k_60fps_h264.webm (3840x2160) [6.0 MB]
- SwitchbackCu_ProRes_4k_60fps.mov (3840x2160) [3.2 GB]
- SwitchbackCu_4k_60fps_h264.mp4 (3840x2160) [19.0 MB]
Images
- SwitchbackCu_4k_0001_print.jpg (1024x576) [82.6 KB]
Frames
- frames/3840x2160_16x9_60p/SwitchbackCloseup_4k/ (3840x2160) [40.0 KB]
Switchback Closeup
Parker indicated that the solar magnetic field embedded in the solar wind flips in the direction. These reversals — dubbed "switchbacks" — last anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes as they flow over Parker Solar Probe. During a switchback, the magnetic field whips back on itself until it is pointed almost directly back at the Sun. The spacecraft's approximate location is represented as a dot icon.
Credit: NASA Goddard/CIL/Adriana Manrique Gutierrez
Movies
- PSP_EarthSunHelioPause_H264_1080_60.mp4 (1920x1080) [116.3 MB]
- PSP_EarthSunHelioPause_H264_1080_60.webm (1920x1080) [8.5 MB]
- PSP_EarthSunHelioPause_H264_4k_60fps.mp4 (3840x2160) [56.9 MB]
- PSP_EarthSunHelioPause_H264_4k_60fps.webm (3840x2160) [27.7 MB]
- PSP_EarthSunHelioPause_ProRes_4k_60fps.mov (3840x2160) [3.1 GB]
Images
- parker_probe.0001_print.jpg (1024x576) [173.7 KB]
Frames
- frames/3840x2160_16x9_60p/PSP_EarthSunHelioPause_4k/ (3840x2160) [60.0 KB]
Artist interreptation of flying by the Earth, Sun and the Heliopause. Credit: NASA Goddard/CIL/Jonathan North
Solar Magnetic Field
Exactly where the solar wind transitions from a rotational flow to a perfectly radial flow has implications for how the Sun sheds energy. Parker located a transition region in the solar wind's flow. Finding that point may help us better understand the lifecycle of other stars or the formation of protoplanetary disks, the dense disks of gas and dust around young stars that eventually coalesce into planets. The spacecraft's approximate location is represented as a dot icon.
Credit: NASA Goddard/CIL/Jonathan North
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab
Animators
- Adriana Manrique Gutierrez (KBRwyle) [Lead]
- Jonathan North (KBRwyle)
Scientist
- Adam Szabo (NASA/GSFC) [Lead]
Art director
- Michael Lentz (KBRwyle)
Producer
- Genna Duberstein (ADNET) [Lead]
Technical support
- Aaron E. Lepsch (ADNET) [Lead]
Missions
This visualization is related to the following missions:Related pages
AGU 2019 - New Science from NASA's Parker Solar Probe Mission
Dec. 11th, 2019
Read moreAnimation of solar windCredit: NASA/GSFC/Adriana Manrique Gutierrez Movie of data from the WISPR instrument on Parker Solar Probe. Credit: Naval Research Laboratory/Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab Graphic showing the orbit of STEREO, Earth and Parker Solar Probe around the Sun. Its from the STEREO webpage. Credit: NASA STEREO images of the solar wind that Parker Solar Probe sampled, but using running difference (i.e. image processing to enhance the smaller features). Credit:NASA/STEREO/Angelos Vourlidas. Cartoon of the structures we see in WISPR and STEREO to scale when they get to Earth and compress Earth's magnetic fields. Credit: NASA/Larry Kepko Movie of STEREO images of the solar wind that Parker Solar Probe sampled, with an icon representing Parker's path through the field of view. Credit: NASA/STEREO/Angelos Vourlidas. The Sun, in UV light, during Parker Solar Probe’s first closest approach in its first orbit. White magnetic field lines are shown originating in a small coronal hole; kinks, based on real Parker measurements, show the switchbacks observed during the encounter.Credit: Imperial College/Ronan Laker/GONG/NASA/HelioPy/PFSSPy Parker Solar Probe flew through several ‘switchbacks’ – tubes of fast solar wind emerging from coronal holes in the Sun’s upper atmosphere. Credit: NASA/GSFC/CIL/Adriana Manrique Gutierrez The Sun’s atmosphere in ultraviolet light during Parker Solar Probe’s first perihelion; bright spots show regions where magnetic energy is released to heat the plasma. Credit: NASA/SDO Extreme Ultraviolet images from NASA's STEREO SECCHI EUVI instrument showing the Sun's hot corona from November 9-11, 2018.Credit: NASA/STEREO One of the fastest CMEs in years was captured by the STEREO COR1 telescopes on August 1, 2010. This movie, combining COR1-Ahead images with the simultaneous Helium II 304 Angstrom images from the STEREO EUVI telescope, shows the rapid explosion of material outward, followed by a slower eruption of a polar crown prominence from another part of the Sun. This CME is seen to be heading towards Earth at speeds well over 1000 kilometers per second.Credit: NASA/STEREO Running Difference movie from NASA's SECCHI COR 2 imager on STEREO A. This shows a coronal mass ejection lifting off on the left side of the video that Parker Solar Probe flew threw in November 11-12 2018.Credit: NASA/STEREO This clip shows the particle flow around the Earth as the CME strikes. Full movie at http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3902Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio Parker Solar Probe plasma and fields data from November 11-12, 2018 that measured a Coronal Mass Ejection. Credit: NASA Parker Solar Probe Mission, the SWEAP team led by J. Kasper, and the FIELDS team led by S. Bale for use of data. Here's a view of the Sun, from the point of view of a fleet of Sun-observing spacecraft - SOHO, TRACE, and RHESSI. The time scales of the data samples in this visualization range from 6 hours to as short as 12 seconds and the display rate varies throughout the movie. The region and event of interest is the solar flare over solar active region AR9906 on April 21, 2002. In this visualization, black corresponds to no (current) instrument coverage.Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio. A special thanks to all those who contributed data and advice without which this product would not have been possible (in no particular order): Alexander Kosovichev (Stanford University), Todd Hoeksema (Stanford University), Steele Hill (L-3 Communications Analytics Corporation/GSFC), Brian R. Dennis (NASA/GSFC), Peter T. Gallagher (L-3 Communications Analytics Corporation/GSFC), Joseph B. Gurman (NASA/GSFC), Nathan Rich (Interferometrics Inc./NRL), Bernhard Fleck (NASA/GSFC), Craig DeForest (SwRI), Philip Scherrer (Stanford University) Combined visualization of 3D magnetic field lines, and proton flux for energies above 50 MeV (the GOES 2nd channel) fopr the July 14, 2000 "Bastille Day" flare/CME.. The > 50 MeV flux is shown as color contours. The figure in the leftmost column display the low coronal portion (out to about 4RS) of the simulation, the middle frames display the corona to about 17RS, and the rightmost frame show the domain to 1 AU (the green sphere on the righthand edge of these images shows the Earth’s position. Credit: Linker, Jon A. and Caplan, Ronald M., Schwadron, Nathan and Gorby, Matthew and Downs, Cooper and Torok, Tibor and Lionello, Roberto and Wijaya, Janvier, Coupled MHD-Focused Transport Simulations for Modeling Solar Particle Events, Journal of Physics Conference Series, 1225, 012007, 2019, doi = 10.1088/1742-6596/1225/1/012007 Enlil model of the 2019 April 20 CME propagating out to PSP. Left panels show modeled densities and right panels show the difference between the modeled density with the CME and the ambient density in the background solar wind. An animation is available. The video starts on 2019-04-01T02:01 and ends at 2019-05-01T00:02. The real-time video duration is 29 s.Credit: Schwadron, N. A. et al., ApJS, in Press, 2019 Composite of the PSP/WISPR Inner and Outer cameras during the first solar encounter (Nov 2018). The location and relative size of the Sun is shown to scale, remaining just outside of the field of view and allowing WISPR to observe solar outflow and coronal mass ejections. Many stars, and the Milky Way, can be see crossing the images. Credit: Brendan Gallagher/Karl Battams/NRL This image, taken from [the movie above] highlights the location of the very faint dust trail we observe following Phaethon’s orbit. Credit: Brendan Gallagher/Karl Battams/NRL The same image sequence as [above] but with additional processing to reduce the brightness of stars and enhance fainter features. Here we are able to see more clearly the very faint dust trail – the Geminds – following the orbit of asteroid (3200) Phaethon. Credit: Brendan Gallagher/Karl Battams/NRL Little more than a year into its mission, Parker Solar Probe has returned gigabytes of data on the Sun and its atmosphere. The very first science from the Parker mission is just beginning to be shared, and five researchers presented new findings from the mission at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union on Dec. 11, 2019. Their research hints at the processes behind both the Sun's continual outflow of material — the solar wind — and more infrequent solar storms that can disrupt technology and endanger astronauts, along with new insight into space dust that creates the Geminids meteor shower.Speakers:Nicholeen Viall - Research Astrophysicist, NASA's Goddard Space Flight CenterTim Horbury - Professor of Physics, Imperial College LondonKelly Korreck - Astrophysicist, Head of Science Operations for SWEAP Suite, Harvard and Smithsonian Center for AstrophysicsNathan Schwadron - Presidential Chair, Norman S. and Anna Marie Waite Professor, University of New HampshireKarl Battams - Computational Scientist, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory Related pages
Parker Solar Probe First Findings - Media Telecon
Dec. 4th, 2019
Read moreImage #1: First results from NASA's Parker Solar Probe show flips in the direction of the magnetic field, which flows out from the Sun, embedded in the solar wind and detected by the FIELDS instrument. During a switchback, the magnetic field whips back on itself until it is pointed almost directly back at the Sun. These switchbacks, along with other observations of the solar wind, may provide early clues about what mechanisms heat the solar corona and accelerate the solar wind. Credit: NASA/Goddard/CIL Image #2: Flips in the Sun's magnetic fields — dubbed "switchbacks" — appear to be a very common phenomenon in the solar wind flow inside the orbit of Mercury, and last anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes as they flow over NASA's Parker Solar Probe during its first year in orbit. Yet they seem not to be present any further from the Sun – we would have no way of spotting them without flying directly through that solar wind the way Parker has. Credit: NASA/Goddard/CIL Image #3: NASA's Parker Solar Probe observed a slow solar wind flowing out from the small coronal hole — the long, thin black spot seen on the left side of the Sun in this image captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory — on October 27, 2018. While scientists have long known that fast solar wind streams flow from coronal holes near the poles, they have not yet conclusively identified the source of the Sun's slow solar wind. Credit: NASA/SDO Image #4: This movie shows six years of observations of the Sun as observed by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. Solar particles outline loops on the horizon, illustrating the constant dance of the Sun's magnetic fields. Credit: NASA/Goddard/SDO Image #5: The WISPR instrument on NASA's Parker Solar Probe captured imagery of the constant outflow of material from the Sun during its close approach to the Sun in November 2018. Credit: NASA/NRL/APL Image #6: The WISPR image on NASA's Parker Solar Probe captured imagery of the constant outflow of material from the Sun during its close approach to the Sun in April 2019. Credit: NASA/NRL/APL Image #7: The Sun is surrounded by a ring of dust, made of the cosmic crumbs of collisions that formed planets, asteroids, comets and other celestial bodies billions of years ago. On clear nights, observers from Earth can see a hint of this dust — known as Zodiacal dust or "false dawn," — as a concentrated illuminated cloud appearing over the horizon, scattering the Sun's light back to us in the dark. New results from NASA's Parker Solar Probe have observed for the first time the way the dust begins to thin out near the Sun, evaporating in the intense heat. As Parker gets closer it may well see the dust disappear completely.Image credit: ESO/Y.Beletsky Image #8: Artist interpretation of a dust-free zone around the Sun. Credit: NASA Goddard Image #9: Parker's ISOIS energetic particle instruments have measured several never-before-seen events so small that all trace of them is lost before they reach Earth. These instruments have also measured a rare type of particle burst with a particularly high ratio of heavier elements — suggesting that both types of events may be more common than scientists previously thought. Solar energetic particle events are important to understand as they can arise suddenly and lead to space weather conditions near Earth that can be potentially harmful to astronauts. Unraveling the sources, acceleration, and transport of solar energetic particles will help us better protect humans in space in the future.Credit: NASA/Goddard Image #10: One of the greatest threats from the Sun — to astronauts and the satellites that provide GPS maps, cell phone service, and internet access — are high-energy particles that erupt from the Sun in bursts. Top: On Nov. 17, 2018 — the 321st day of that year, as seen on the bottom axis — the ISʘIS instrument aboard NASA's Parker Solar Probe observed a burst of high-energy protons, each with more than 1 million electron-volts of energy. The warmer colors (yellow, orange, red) represent an increase in the number of these high-energy particles hitting the ISʘIS sensors. (Time in days is given on the horizontal axis, and particle energy on the vertical axis.) Bottom: An artist’s representation of one of these energetic particle events.Credit: NASA/Princeton Image #11: During Parker Solar Probe’s first two orbits, ISʘIS detected many small energetic particle events, solar bursts during which the rates of particles streaming out of the sun increased rapidly. On ISʘIS, the Epi-Lo instrument measures particles in the tens of thousands of electron-volts, while Epi-Hi measures particles with millions to hundreds of millions of electron-volts. (For reference, the electricity in your house is 120 volts.) Here, data from orbits 1 (left) and 2 (right) show the ISʘIS particle count rates overlaid as color strips along the black line that represents the trajectory of Parker Solar Probe. The lower energy (“Lo”) rates can be seen on the inside of the track, while the higher energy (“Hi”) rates run on the outside of the track. Both the width and color correspond to the measured rates, such that large red bars indicate the biggest bursts, when the sun released the most particles in a short amount of time.Credit: NASA/Princeton/APL Image #12: The top panel shows a schematic of a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME), during which a burst of material with as much mass as Lake Michigan is ejected from the Sun. These can pose a threat to astronauts and space satellites, but ISʘIS scientists discovered that tiny energetic particles rush ahead of the ejected mass, providing advance warning of the incoming threat. Image #13: The bottom panel shows an ISʘIS time-series spectrogram of proton fluxes from EPI-Lo (top) and the magnetic field measurements (bottom) during an observed CME. The energetic particles preceded the CME, reaching Parker Solar Probe nearly a day before the ejected mass.Credit: NASA/Princeton/APL Image #14: On Epi-Lo, 80 tiny telescopes are looking in 80 different directions, and one of those was punctured by a dust grain when Parker Solar Probe was at its closest approach to the sun. The purple arrow shows the approximate arrival direction of the dust grain, and the bottom panel shows where during the second orbit collision occurred.Credit: NASA/Princeton NASA to Present First Parker Solar Probe Findings in Media TeleconferenceNASA will announce the first results from the Parker Solar Probe mission, the agency's mission to "touch" the Sun, during a media teleconference at 1:30 pm EST on Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2019.Parker has traveled closer to our star than any human-made object before it. The teleconference will discuss the first papers from the principal investigators of the mission’s four instruments. The papers will be published online Wednesday in Nature at 1 pm EST.The teleconference audio will stream live at:https://www.nasa.gov/nasaliveParticipants in the call are: •Nicola Fox, director of the Heliophysics Division, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters, Washington•Stuart Bale, principal investigator of the FIELDS instrument at the University of California, Berkeley•Justin Kasper, principal investigator of the SWEAP instrument at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor•Russ Howard, principal investigator of the WISPR instrument at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington•David McComas, principal investigator of the ISʘIS instrument at Princeton University in Princeton, N.J. Related pages
The Heliosphere Has Ripples!
Feb. 17th, 2023
Read moreWatch this video on the NASA Solar System Exploration Instagram page.Complete transcript available.Music credits: “Peaks and Spikes [Instrumental]” by Max van Thun [GEMA] A version of this video with no on-screen text
What Mercury’s Unusual Orbit Reveals About the Sun
March 24th, 2022
Read moreMusic Credits: “Swirling Blizzard” by Laurent Dury [SACEM], “Sparkle Shimmer” by William Henries [PRS] and Michael Holborn [PRS] from Universal Production MusicAdditional footage from:Science@NASA: https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/news-articles/on-the-cusp-of-understandingJPL:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMZ5WFRbSTcJohns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab: https://messenger.jhuapl.edu/ Mercury is special. As the closest planet to the Sun, it occupies a region where the Sun’s influence is changing dramatically. The Sun’s magnetic field, which dominates space close to the Sun, is rapidly waning. And Mercury’s orbit – more elliptical or “oval-shaped” than any other planet – allows it to experience a wider range of solar magnetic field conditions than any other planet. As a result, Mercury provides a unique opportunity to study how the Sun’s influence on a planet varies with distance.In a new study published in Nature Communications, Goddard scientists Norberto Romanelli and Gina DiBraccio used data from NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft to study the Sun’s changing interaction with Mercury. As Mercury moves through the solar wind, the steady stream of particles escaping the Sun, some of them strike Mercury’s magnetosphere and bounce back towards the Sun. These rebounding solar wind particles generate low-frequency waves that reverberate through space, traveling “upstream” in the solar wind towards the Sun. Romanelli and DiBraccio observed these waves emanating from Mercury and discovered that the rate of wave production varied throughout Mercury’s orbit. As Mercury moved farther from the Sun it generated more waves; as it got closer, the rate of wave production dropped. The results provide key evidence for a theory that these waves are affected, in part, by the strength of the Sun’s magnetic field, which grows weaker with distance. Related pages
11 Years Charting The Edge of The Solar System
June 11th, 2020
Read moreWatch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.Music credits: “End of Days - Joe Mason Remix” by Connor Shambrook [BMI], Cyrus Reynolds [BMI], Flynn Hase Spence [ASCAP], Joseph Scott Mason [APRA]; “Brainstorming” by Laurent Dury [SACEM]; “Flight of the Leaf Remix” by Julie Gruss [GEMA], Laurent Dury [SAXEM]; “Ticks and Thoughts” by Laurent Dury [SACEM]; “Intimate Journey” by Laurent Vernerey [SACEM], Nicolas de Ferran [SACEM] from Universal Production MusicComplete transcript available. Far, far beyond the orbits of the planets lie the hazy outlines of the magnetic bubble in space that we call home. This is the heliosphere, the vast bubble that is generated by the Sun’s magnetic field and envelops all the planets. The borders of this cosmic bubble are not fixed. In response to the Sun’s gasps and sighs, they shrink and stretch over the years. Now, for the first time, scientists have used an entire solar cycle of data from NASA’s IBEX spacecraft to study how the heliosphere changes over time. Solar cycles last roughly 11 years, as the Sun swings from seasons of high to low activity, and back to high again. With IBEX’s long record, scientists were eager to examine how the Sun’s mood swings play out at the edge of the heliosphere. The results show the shifting outer heliosphere in great detail, deftly sketch the heliosphere’s shape — a matter of debate in recent years, and hint at processes behind one of its most puzzling features. These findings, along with a newly fine-tuned data set, are published in The Astrophysical Journal Supplements on June 10, 2020. Related pages
New Mission Will Take First Peek at Sun’s Poles
Jan. 27th, 2020
Read moreVideoWatch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.Music credits: “Oxide” and “Virtual Tidings” by Andrew Michael Britton [PRS], David Stephen Goldsmith [PRS]; “Progressive Practice” by Emmanuel David Lipszc [SACEM], Franck Lascombes [SACEM], Sebastien Lipszyc [SACEM]; “Political Spectrum” by Laurent Dury [SACEM} from Universal Production MusicComplete transcript available. Still ImageCredit: NASA/CiLab A new spacecraft is journeying to the Sun to snap the first pictures of the Sun’s north and south poles. Solar Orbiter, a collaboration between ESA (the European Space Agency) and NASA will have its first opportunity to launch from Cape Canaveral on Feb. 7, 2020, at 11:15 p.m. EST. Launching on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, the spacecraft will use Venus’ and Earth’s gravity to swing itself out of the ecliptic plane — the swath of space, roughly aligned with the Sun’s equator, where all planets orbit. From there, Solar Orbiter's bird’s eye view will give it the first-ever look at the Sun's poles.Read more: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2020/new-mission-will-take-first-peek-at-sun-s-poles Related pages
5 New Discoveries from NASA's Parker Solar Probe
Dec. 4th, 2019
Read moreMusic Credit: Smooth as Glass by The Freeharmonic OrchestraWatch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.Complete transcript available. 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 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. Related pages