Like an onion (or a big green cartoon ogre), the Sun is slowly revealing its layers—with the help of NASA’s Parker Solar Probe.
New data gathered during the spacecraft’s third pass through the solar corona was published this week in the journal Nature.
Four papers reveal insights that will help scientists rewrite the models they use to understand and predict space weather around our planet. The information is also vital to protecting astronauts and technology in space.
“The first data from Parker reveals our star, the Sun, in new and surprising ways,” according to Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for science at NASA.
During its initial flybys, Parker studied the Sun from 15 million miles away.
“Observing the Sun up close rather than from a much greater distance is giving us an unprecedented view into important solar phenomena and how they affect us on Earth,” Zurbuchen said in a statement. “And [it] gives us new insights relevant to the understanding of active stars across galaxies.”
Moving at a speed of more than 213,000 mph—faster than any previous spacecraft—the probe is expected to get even closer in the future.
“The Sun has fascinated humanity for our entire existence,” Parker Solar Probe project scientist Nour Raouafi said. “We’ve learned a great deal about our star in the past several decades, but we really needed a mission like [this] to go to into the Sun’s atmosphere.”
Recent findings reveal new information about the behavior of solar wind—a continual outflow of material that bathes the entire Solar System. And, subsequently, how to predict space weather around our planet and understand the process by which stars are created and evolve.
“It’s only there that we can really learn the details of these complex solar processes,” Raouafi continued. “And what we’ve learned in just these three solar orbits along has changed a lot of what we know about the Sun.”
The Parker Probe will make 21 more close approaches to the Sun at progressively intimate distances, culminating in three orbits a mere 3.83 million miles from the solar surface.
Its next encounter is scheduled for Jan. 29, 2020.
“The Sun is the only star we can examine this closely,” Nicola Fox, director of the Heliophysics Division at NASA, said. “Getting data at the source is already revolutionizing our understanding of our own star and stars across the universe.
“Our little spacecraft is soldiering through brutal conditions to send home startling and exciting revelations,” she added.
Data from the first two solar encounters is available to the public online.
More on Geek.com:
- The Sun is Belching Massive Blobs of Plasma
- Parker Solar Probe Snaps Stunning Close-Up of Sun
- Rare Glimpse of Dying Star Confirms Prediction of Our Sun’s Fate
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