The Parker Solar Probe is a NASA probe launched in 2018 to study the Sun’s corona and solar wind. It has made several close passes to the Sun, including a record-breaking one on December 24, 2024, where it came within 3.8 million miles of the Sun’s surface, and has broken the record of travelling faster than 400,000 mph. The probe is designed to withstand extreme heat and radiation near the Sun, and it has been equipped with instruments to measure the speed and type of particles in the solar wind.
Survival depends on brilliant engineering and a highly elliptical orbit. This talk by Keith Townsend (FRAS) will explore the basics of the mission and set the scene for what we can hope to learn. Get the essential background before the science starts to flow.
