The Parker Solar Probe is surviving blisteringly hot temperatures to investigate the mystery of why the sun's atmosphere is hotter than its surface.
Despite being hotter than the surface of the sun, the corona is usually not visible because the light from the photosphere drowns out its light.
"Flying so close to the sun, Parker Solar Probe now senses conditions in the magnetically dominated layer of the solar atmosphere – the corona – that we never could before," said Nour Raouafi, Parker project scientist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland."We see evidence of being in the corona in magnetic field data, solar wind data, and visually in images.
Any mission that intends to move through the corona requires significant heat protection. The key to resisting the extreme conditions lies in the probe's heat shield and an automated system that protects it against powerful light emissions.
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