The Parker Solar Probe might’ve witnessed something new on Earth’s neighbor
CommentsA photo of the nightside of Venus taken by the Wide-field Imager on Parker Solar Probe.Parker Solar Probe, NASA’s closest eye on the Sun
, was whizzing by Venus last summer for a gravity assist when it snapped a striking new image of the planet’s mysterious nightside, revealing a surprisingly clear view of the Venusian surface. The spacecraft, launched in 2018, is in the midst of its seven-year journey to study the Sun from 4 million miles away, the closest any human-made object has gone before. To do this, Parker Solar Probe needs to use the gravity of Venus to help tighten its orbit around the Sun through a series of seven flybys, nudging itself closer to the star with each pass.The image taken by Parker Solar Probe’s Wide-field Imager came during its third Venus flyby in July 2020, and scientists were shocked.
An up-close shot of the nightside of Venus taken by the Parker Solar Probe, with key features annotated by NASA.“WISPR effectively captured the thermal emission of the Venusian surface,” Brian Wood, an astrophysicist and WISPR scientist at the US Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC, said in a
South Africa Latest News, South Africa Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
ESA and NASA join forces to answer the Sun's heating riddleA 65-year old perplexing question may have finally been answered: Why is the Sun's atmosphere hotter than its surface?
Read more »
Massive Sun Outburst Smacks NASA SpacecraftIf it had hit Earth, this coronal mass ejection could have caused continent-scale blackouts, scientists say
Read more »
NASA’s newest spacecraft will fly through the Sun’s scorching hot atmosphereThe Parker Solar Probe is getting closer to our star than any vehicle has before.
Read more »
Look, A Baby StarNASA pics show what young sun looked like
Read more »
Parker Solar Probe and Solar Orbiter team up to tackle 65-year-old sun mysteryThe sun’s outer atmosphere is vastly hotter than its surface. Scientists may be close to figuring out why.
Read more »