NASA Solar Probe Captures Never-Before-Seen Images of Sun's Corona

It's at the heart of our solar system, but in many ways the sun remains a mystery in plain sight.

NASA's Parker Solar Probe is a $1.5 billion (€1.3 billion) mission to help scientists learn more about the Earth's own star.

And, in its first release of information gleaned from the probe, NASA says the mission's already sent back some surprises.

In updates published in the journal "Nature" on Wednesday, scientists report that they've observed bursts of energetic particles never seen before on such a small scale.

They're also hoping their observations of solar storms could help plan future manned space missions.

"On the Earth, we're protected by the Earth's magnetic field and the atmosphere of the Earth. But once you're out in space, away from the Earth's magnetic field, those (solar storms) can be a danger to not only astronauts, but also spacecraft. Parker Solar Probe is trying to get the basic science that will allow us, in the future, to be able to predict those solar storms the way that a meteorologist predicts weather here on Earth," explains NASA scientist Dr Eric Christian.

Researchers also say they've seen switchback-like reversals in the out-flowing solar magnetic field that seem to whip up the solar wind.

They also finally have evidence of a dust-free zone encircling the sun; farther out, there's so much dust from vaporising comets and asteroids that one of 80 small viewfinders on one instrument was pierced by a grain earlier this year.

"These particles of dust, they actually spiral in towards the sun, and they collide with each other and break up into smaller and smaller pieces. And as these small pieces get really close to the sun, they can either be completely vaporised, or the light, the pressure from the light of the sun itself is actually enough to blow them away from the sun. And so Parker Solar Probe has started to see hints that there might actually be this predicted "dust free zone" around the sun," explains Dr Aleida Higginson, a scientist at John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.

Launched in 2018, Parker has come within 15 million miles (25 million kilometres) of the sun and will get increasingly closer - within 4 million miles (6 million kilometres) - over the next six years.

It's completed three of 24 orbits of the sun, dipping well into the corona, or upper atmosphere.

And according to Dr Eric Christian, it's that information that's particularly interesting.

Scientists have long pondered where solar wind - which originates from the spinning corona of the sun - stops spinning and starts travelling in straight lines.

Now Parker Solar Probe is helping them find the answer.

"Where that transition happens is very important for understanding, because that spinning of the corona actually helps slow down the sun. All stars get slower in their spinning as they get older. Parker Solar Probe sees that transition from spinning to straight happens further from the sun than we thought. And that actually has implications for every star in the universe, and how they slow down. And that's important actually for the habitability of solar systems around distant stars," Dr Christian says.

Parker will sweep past Venus on 26 December 2019 for the second gravity-assist of the mission and make its fourth close solar encounter in January 2020.

As Parker gets even closer to its target, the sun will go through an active phase, which scientists hope will mean some exciting new data in the months ahead.

The Parker Solar Probe itself was developed by researchers at John Hopkins University, and is protected by a heat shield capable of withstanding 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit, or 1,370 degrees Celsius.

As it approaches the sun, it will hit speeds of up to 430,000 miles (692,000 kilometres) per hour, which researchers says it like going from Chicago to Beijing in under a minute.

They say it's the fastest speed ever achieved by a human-made device.

The Parker Solar Probe is named for solar astrophysicist Eugene Parker, 92, a professor emeritus at the University of Chicago who attended its launch at Cape Canaveral last year.

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