Footage From The First-Ever Probe to Touch The Sun

This is what it's like to touch the Sun.


The footage was taken by NASA's Parker Solar Probe over the period of 4 days as it swooped into the Sun's corona.

So, what are we actually looking at? These images were captured by the Parker probe's WISPR (Wide-field Imager for Solar Probe) instrument.

All of those streaks the probe is zooming through are coronal streamers – massive loops of electrically charged gas and plasma that connect two regions of opposite polarity on the Sun. They're extended out by the solar wind and they glow like this because they're filled with electrons.

These streamers, also known as helmet streamers, are usually only visible from Earth during an eclipse – but in the footage they're seen as the spacecraft flies above and below them inside the corona.

But that's not all there is to gape at in the Parker time lapse. Take another look and you may notice there are planets visible in the background – including Earth!
www.sciencealert.com...

If you have time take a look at the screen shots in the article that explain what is shown in the footage , cool stuff.

a reply to: gortex

I remember signing up on NASAs website to have my name uploaded to the probe.
Totally a novelty idea, but cool nonetheless.

a reply to: gortex

thanks man, for some reason i cant save the video on youtube to my space folder, seems bizarre that the function is not available

a reply to: gortex

Super cool just for the fact that humans can do this. I haven't read anything about why though?

What do they hope to learn or is this just an experiment?

a reply to: scraedtosleep

Just one of our steps to understanding I guess.

Parker Solar Probe has three detailed science objectives: Trace the flow of energy that heats and accelerates the solar corona and solar wind. Determine the structure and dynamics of the plasma and magnetic fields at the sources of the solar wind. Explore mechanisms that accelerate and transport energetic particles.
parkersolarprobe.jhuapl.edu...

But yeah , how far we've come.

I once sent my old lady to the moon and back, talk about moving goal posts and raising the bar.


Just kidding that’s really cool

originally posted by: Macenroe82
a reply to: gortex

I remember signing up on NASAs website to have my name uploaded to the probe.
Totally a novelty idea, but cool nonetheless.

Yeah, I signed up to get the 'Hot Ticket" too.

Here is information about how they built the probe, if like me, you were wondering how it gets that close to the sun without getting fried.

a reply to: SleeperHasAwakened

Surely they just timed it right so it was night time when it arrived

originally posted by: SleeperHasAwakened
Here is information about how they built the probe, if like me, you were wondering how it gets that close to the sun without getting fried.

Thanks for the link.

outside the spacecraft that reach nearly 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit (1,377 degrees Celsius).

The temps aren't quite what I thought they'd be, and that's why I'm not an astrophysicist.

a reply to: SleeperHasAwakened

originally posted by: chr0naut

originally posted by: Macenroe82
a reply to: gortex

I remember signing up on NASAs website to have my name uploaded to the probe.
Totally a novelty idea, but cool nonetheless.

Yeah, I signed up to get the 'Hot Ticket" too.

… and all I ended up with is this crummy vax card and a video of plasma from the 🌞

I thought about doing that but instead got the 1x1ft square on the moon named after my boy

a reply to: gortex

Wow.
Can't really say much more than that.

Love your threads on things like this.

originally posted by: Brotherman

originally posted by: chr0naut

originally posted by: Macenroe82
a reply to: gortex

I remember signing up on NASAs website to have my name uploaded to the probe.
Totally a novelty idea, but cool nonetheless. yeah cool stuff.

Yeah, I signed up to get the 'Hot Ticket" too.

the wife and i have our names on a rover on mars. i forget which one. it was, i have the cirtif around here somewhere.

i think i got a star named after my daughter too.

… and all I ended up with is this crummy vax card and a video of plasma from the 🌞

I thought about doing that but instead got the 1x1ft square on the moon named after my boy

originally posted by: SleeperHasAwakened
Here is information about how they built the probe, if like me, you were wondering how it gets that close to the sun without getting fried.

Thank-you! That was the first thought entering my mind. Even in the age of Star Trek, only one experimental craft was able to enter a sun's corona, and survive.

a reply to: myselfaswell

Yeah when I found out that there are many things on earth that burn hotter than the surface of the sun, I was surprised. In 2017 or 18 the cern institute recorded the highest temperature on earth, it was like 9 trillion degrees (F) Nonetheless thus is very cool.

originally posted by: UpThenDown
a reply to: SleeperHasAwakened

Surely they just timed it right so it was night time when it arrived

Unfortunately, it was raining at the time.

originally posted by: Freeborn
a reply to: gortex

Wow.
Can't really say much more than that.

Love your threads on things like this.

Took the words right out of my mouth, wow indeed. More like Woooow! but you know what I mean

I, too, got nothin' else. "Woooow!" about does it as best possible

a reply to: gortex

Awesome! Thanks for sharing.

a reply to: gortex


Touching the sun ....???

Wont you get a sun burn ??