First NASA Mission Named for a Living Person
In 1958, Dr. Parker published the first paper theorizing the solar wind, the Sun's constant outflow of material. Now, the Parker Solar Probe is on its way to the Sun to make novel measurements of the solar wind and help us uncover its secrets.
Image: Dr. Eugene Parker, a pioneer in heliophysics at the University of Chicago, watches the launch of NASA's Parker Solar Probe. This is the first agency mission named for a living person. The liftoff took place at 3:31 a.m. EDT on Sunday, Aug. 12, 2018. The spacecraft was built by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. The mission will perform the closest-ever observations of a star when it travels through the Sun's atmosphere, called the corona. The probe will rely on measurements and imaging to revolutionize our understanding of the corona and the Sun-Earth connection.
Learn more about NASA's Parker Solar Probe:
https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/parker-solar-probe
Image Credit: NASA/Glenn Benson
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