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How Close Can We Get to the Sun?
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Getting closer to the sun
Until now, NASA's Helios 2 was the vessel that has got the closest to the sun: in 1976, it came within 27 million miles of the surface of the sun.
This is about to change, as NASA is planning on making its brand new Parker Solar Probe have a path that will take it 3.83 million miles away from the sun. The journey will have as main purpose to gather as much information as possible on the yellow star.
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The concerns related to traveling to the sun
When planning to send its brand new vessel to investigate on the sun, NASA has to take into account serious threats to its astronauts.
The biggest obvious threat is the extremely hot area that surrounds the sun, or what we call the virus. The research will actually focus also on finding out why the temperatures in the area are so high.
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The high radiation of the sun
When traveling to the sun, astronauts take huge risks, as the sun emits an enormous amount of radiation. Usually this radiation is associated with heart issues or strokes.
Therefore, the closer you find yourself to the sun, the more chances you have to die sooner than you would normally had it not been for the journey.
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Disintegration of a vessel
NASA's newest vessel, the Parker Solar Probe, comes equipped with a custom-made heat shield, the so-called 'Thermal Protection System', which will protect the instruments behind it from high heat radiation. At the very end of the travel, any remaining unprotected parts of the Parker Solar Probe will shift toward the sun and transform into space dust.
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Exploration and its benefits
By setting as goal the exploration of the sun starting this year and ending in 2025, NASA is bound to save the world trillions of dollars.
This is possible, as it is expected that the journey finds answers such as the functioning of solar winds, that can actually destroy satellites and mess up with our GPS signals and radio communications.
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The northern lights, or aurora borealis
The magnetic fields of the sun distort and twist as the Earth rotates on its axis. When these fields become knotted together, they create sunspots. Usually, these sunspots occur in pairs.
A...
Auroras on other worlds
Auroras also occur on planets such as Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. These gas giants have thick atmospheres and strong magnetic fields. These auroras are a little different from Earth's as they are formed under different conditions.
Venus has an aurora generated by its magnetotail. Mars experiences local auroras due to magnetic fields in the crust. There are also northern hemisphere auroras caused by particles hitting the Maritan atmosphere.
Cycles and particles
Northern lights occur roughly every eleven years. Record-keeping of the sun's activity began in 1749. Since then, there have been 22 full cycles.
Particles ejected from the sun travel 93 million miles toward Earth before they are drawn toward the magnetic north and south poles. As the particles move through the Earth's magnetic shield, they mix with the oxygen, nitrogen, and other elements that result in the display of lights.
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NASA - planetary science
At the beginning of this year, NASA scientists had to decide which missions should explore our Solar System. They chose four missions for further study from the 20 intriguing ideas submitted. From ...
Emerging technologies for space exploration
Two emerging technologies may propel NASA and the rest of the world into an era of faster, low-cost exploration that would lead to more exploration and democratise access to the Solar System.
- A new generation of companies is developing new rockets for small satellites. Rocket Lab has a lunar program for its small Electron rocket, and Virgin Orbit with a group of Polish universities is to launch up to three missions to Mars with its LauncherOne vehicle.
- At the same time, various components of satellites are being miniaturised.
- Tiny satellites are no longer theoretical. Two years ago, a pair of CubeSats, called MarCO-A and MarCO-B, launched with the InSight mission. The briefcase-sized satellites deployed their own solar arrays and journeyed to Mars.
Small sats in deep space
NASA had several goals with MarCO. The MarCOs proved that small satellites could thrive in deep space and stream data back home.
A few months after their mission ended, the European Space Agency announced that it would send two CubeSats on its "Hera" mission to a binary system.
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Star Wars
The first movie of the blockbuster franchise, retroactively titled as Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, exploded into the movie theatres in 1977. It became a global cultural phenomenon and gave bir...
The Story Set In Space
The Star Wars story is a classic Hero’s Journey, in which the protagonist, Luke Skywalker in a galaxy, far, far away, learns that he is able to harness a certain force. He eventually joins the rebellion against the Galactic Empire, and along with his allies, destroys the Death Star, uniting with his father, who had fallen on the dark side.
Sequels Prequels
The original story and its continuation in the two sequels released in the 80s had limited computer graphics technology, which eventually became better in the 90s. The Director, George Lucas, then released three ‘prequels’ which had better technology and visual effects, though the story wasn’t in the same league.