(CNN) The Parker Solar Probe is on a mission to study the sun, but it keeps discovering new, intriguing things about our mysterious planetary neighbor Venus. This was the third Venus gravity assist for the Parker Solar Probe. During the third Venus flyby, Parker Solar Probe's FIELDS instrument, which measures electric and magnetic fields in the sun's atmosphere, detected a natural radio signal at a low frequency. The radio signal picked up by FIELDS helped the researchers calculate the density of the Venusian ionosphere. "The goal of flying by Venus is to slow down the spacecraft so that Parker Solar Probe can dive closer to the Sun," said Nour E. Raouafi, Parker Solar Probe project scientist at The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, in a statement.

Source: CNN May 04, 2021 17:37 UTC