CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A NASA spacecraft will aim straight for the sun next year. Scheduled to launch in summer 2018, the Solar Probe Plus will fly within 6.4 million kilometres of the sun’s surface — right into the solar atmosphere. It will be subjected to brutal heat and radiation like no other man-made structure before. The purpose is to study the sun’s outer atmosphere and better understand how stars like ours work. The announcement came during a ceremony honouring astrophysicist Eugene Parker, professor emeritus at the University of Chicago.

Source: National Post May 31, 2017 16:18 UTC