A Nasa spacecraft has officially “touched” the Sun, plunging through the unexplored solar atmosphere known as the corona.
A Nasa spacecraft has officially “touched” the Sun, plunging through the unexplored solar atmosphere known as the corona. S cientists announced the news during a meeting of the American Geophysical Union. The Parker Solar Probe actually flew through the corona in April during the spacecraft’s eighth close approach to the Sun. Scientists said it took a few months to get the data back and then several more months to confirm. “Fascinatingly exciting,” said project scientist Nour Raouafi of Johns Hopkins University. Launched in 2018, Parker was eight million miles from the centre of the Sun when it first crossed the jagged, uneven boundary between the solar atmosphere and outgoing solar wind.
