“The solar probe has called home!” writes the US space agency NASA excitedly. This means: The heat shield protected the probe as it flew past the sun.
The Parker Solar Probe probe has given its first sign of life after coming closer to the sun than any other man-made object has ever done before. The signal received indicates that the probe is in good condition and functioning normally, said the US space agency NASA.
The space probe flew deep into the sun’s atmosphere on December 24th, reaching previously unexplored regions. According to NASA calculations, their probe came within around six million kilometers of the sun’s surface. A thick heat shield protected the probe and the instruments mounted on it.
According to NASA, the probe’s signal was received by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland. Researchers spoke in advance of a short, autonomous radio signal – comparable to the flashing of a lighthouse. During its closest approach to the Sun, research teams on Earth had no contact with the probe.
Further data expected in January
The first data on whether the probe also carried out measurements during its flyby will be available at the beginning of January, explained astrophysicist Volker Bothmer from the University of Göttingen to the German Press Agency. Then more signals from the secondary antennas reached Earth. Scientific data is expected at the end of January, when the probe’s main antenna points towards Earth.
“But it will take a few years until we have evaluated and understood all the data,” Bothmer said in advance. He leads the German participation in the mission and, among other things, helped develop its concept and a wide-angle camera.
Knowledge about the solar winds and solar storms
Among other things, the researchers expect to find out why the sun’s outer atmosphere is many times hotter than its surface. This should also help to understand how the atmospheres of other stars work. It is also about the question of how solar currents are generated in the sun’s atmosphere and how solar wind or solar storms arise.
The space probe will now probably continue to fly on the same elliptical orbit and approach the sun again on March 22nd and June 19th at a distance of six million kilometers, said Bothmer. What should happen afterwards is currently being discussed. “We hope that we can continue to work with the Parker Solar Probe for many more years,” said Bothmer.
The fuel will last for another 70 years, but the battery’s power will only last for about seven years, “depending on how many maneuvers we still do with the probe.” The solar cells age and the camera lenses can become cloudy over time due to the dust particles in space.
The probe, which was launched in 2018, is named after the US astrophysicist Eugene Parker, who, according to NASA, presented a mathematical theory on the existence of the solar wind as a young man in the 1950s. This is a stream of charged particles that the sun constantly sends into space. Parker died in 2022 at the age of 94. According to NASA, he was the first person to witness the launch of a probe that bears his name.
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Source: www.digitalfernsehen.de
