While we have explored the moon and are exploring the mars, Sun is also a star that is full of mysteries that remain to be unveiled. While NASA is always almost the first to tread untouched territories of the space, this time too they launched the Parker Solar probe in the year 2018 to pursue the mysterious Sun and the mysteries that lay hidden behind those blazing temperatures.

Well, the Solar probe moving around in an orbit will attempt to move closer to the sun for detailed study as times goes on. The good news is, by 2024 it is be the nearest to the sun even more than the earth is. The earth is around 150 million kilometers away from the sun while the solar probe is going to be as near as 6 million kilometers. While that might not sound near but considering earth it is very much. The space craft is equipped with instruments that measure the electromagnetic fields as well as solar wind plasma around it. It will also assess the ions, electrons or energetic particles with the ability to travel faster than the solar wind. Equipped with an imaging instrument, this probe will also click pictures of the suns corona.

While the Parker Probe has been active since 2018, its first measurements have shown a lot of variations in the magnetic field and speed as compared to that near the Earth. There have been switch backs but scientists have no idea what really are these switch backs which again happens because of strong and short jets. But, both the jet and switch backs still are a subject to study further. The intensity of these switch backs also makes the scientists think about their role in heating the solar corona and the solar wind speed acceleration.

The imaging instrument on the probe has also been of great use as it has already captured signatures of coronal mass ejections around the sun. These ejections are large material eruptions that begin from within the solar corona. As per the scientists the study of these eruptions is important because if they hit the earth they could cause a lot of damage in terms of power failure, radio communication issues as well as GPS disconnections to name a few. They could also harm planes and space-crafts.

Though the solar probe has sent its first results lot of questions are yet to be answered and lot many mysteries yet to be unveiled. But, as the probe moves nearer to the sun this will definitely happen with new discoveries and facts coming to light.

*Sourced from Internet

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