It’s called the Parker Solar Probe and its mission is to travel across our solar system and enter an orbit around the Sun that would put it inside the Sun’s outer atmosphere. The Sun is also the source of dangerous solar winds that can shake Earth’s magnetic fields, disrupt our satellites, endanger astronauts, and even affect technology on Earth’s surface. These same solar winds spread throughout our entire solar system and understanding them will be an important step in safely sending astronauts further from home. The probe name comes from astrophysicist Eugene Parker who wrote and article called “Dynamics of the interplanetary gas and magnetic fields”. Kander10 DesignsTo learn more about the Parker Solar Probe please visit our friends at NASA.

Source: Forbes June 03, 2017 09:56 UTC