NASA Will Launch A Probe Into the Sun

NASA's Solar Probe Plus mission is moving ahead with its daring 2018 launch to study the sun's super-heated atmosphere.

www.seeker.com...

Of course, before crashing (or more accurately, melting) unto the Sun, the probe will be gathering important data about the Sun's corona - something which I cannot wait to see.

There is alot of the Sun which we still do not understand. One of these long-standing mysteries is the heat of the Sun's corona. We just don't know how that works.

The surface of the sun is almost 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s really hot. But the sun’s corona is over 200 times hotter—millions of degrees Fahrenheit. That’s like the actual flame of a fire being 200 times colder than the air around that fire.

Why would the area around a hot burning mass be hotter than something that is actually closer to the source of heat? And if the corona is so hot, then why doesn’t it heat up the sun’s surface to a similar temperature?

Well, the truth is that nobody knows for sure.

spaceplace.nasa.gov...

There are many theories of course but until now all we've done is observe the Sun from afar. So NASA hopes to help us solve the mystery by sending a probe to gather more data. The probe will be doing a few rounds before the actual plunge, leaving scientists enough time to gather all the data they can.

Read more: www.seeker.com...

a reply to: swanne

Pretty interesting.

I wonder how close it can come to the sun before evaporating .

If they were smart, they'd send it at night.

Yeah, I always wondered how that worked.

Hope they find something interesting!

originally posted by: GmAndre
a reply to: swanne

Is Trmp gonna be onboard?

So much trying to keep science in this forum.... the 'Science and Technology Forum'.

It is now a political mud pit too.

originally posted by: burgerbuddy
If they were smart, they'd send it at night.

Yeah, I always wondered how that worked.

Hope they find something interesting!

haha xD yeah... at night during winter.

Increase NASA's federal budget to 5%.

a reply to: swanne

Something strikes me. The Suns gravity and electromagnetism are less strongly felt, the further one tends to be from the sun, correct? Could it be, therefore, that the corona is hotter than the surface, because the corona is further from the centre of these crushingly powerful forces, meaning that particles in the corona are free to move around at a much higher speed, resulting in a much higher temperature, than particles closer to, or on the surface of the sun, which are compressed by magnetism and gravity far more strongly, slowing them down some?

originally posted by: swanne
...(or more accurately, melting) unto the Sun...

You should give NASA more credit, they are probably going to send it there in the winter when it is colder.

In other news , the probe that was due to be launched into the sun escaped last night.Investigators feel the probe had assistance from a large group of SJW who chanted the slogan RLM (thats Robot Lives Matter) . Film at 11

a reply to: Mianeye

I wonder how close it can come to the sun before evaporating .

I think the probe is going to fly past, not collide. That will give them two datasets to compare of outer corona measurements - that's my assumption, anyway.

[Edit] Reading further, the probe will shrink into a tighter and tighter orbit around the sun, coming to within 3.7 million miles (see below).

Solar Probe Plus will study the streams of charged particles the Sun hurls into space from a vantage point where the processes that heat the corona and produce solar wind actually occur. At closest approach Solar Probe Plus will zip past the Sun at 125 miles per second, protected by a carbon-composite heat shield that must withstand up to 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit and survive blasts of radiation and energized dust at levels not experienced by any previous spacecraft.

APL is designing and will build the spacecraft, on a schedule to launch no later than 2018. The compact, solar-powered probe would weigh about 1,350 pounds; preliminary designs include an 8-foot-diameter, 4.5-inch-thick, carbon-carbon carbon foam solar shield atop the spacecraft body. The solar arrays will retract and extend as the spacecraft swings toward or away from the Sun during several loops around the inner solar system, making sure the panels stay at proper temperatures and power levels. At its closest passes the spacecraft must survive solar intensity more than 500 times what spacecraft experience while orbiting Earth. Solar Probe Plus will use seven Venus flybys over nearly seven years to gradually shrink its orbit around the Sun, coming as close as 3.7 million miles (5.9 million kilometers) to the Sun, well within the orbit of Mercury and about eight times closer than any spacecraft has come before.

Source

a reply to: GmAndre

Trump and Clinton,
Counting down from three,
C-O-O-K-I-N-G!
First comes blindness,
Then discolouration,
Then total loss of molecular cohesion!

a reply to: TrueBrit

That's right. It's after noon there.

originally posted by: TrueBrit
a reply to: swanne

Something strikes me. The Suns gravity and electromagnetism are less strongly felt, the further one tends to be from the sun, correct? Could it be, therefore, that the corona is hotter than the surface, because the corona is further from the centre of these crushingly powerful forces, meaning that particles in the corona are free to move around at a much higher speed, resulting in a much higher temperature, than particles closer to, or on the surface of the sun, which are compressed by magnetism and gravity far more strongly, slowing them down some?

Good use of the ol' Noggin "TrueBrit" you may be on to something there!

a reply to: burgerbuddy

I'm more curious if people will somehow find images of rocks on/near the sun and claim it to be prehistoric Alien life

originally posted by: GmAndre
a reply to: swanne

Is Trmp gonna be onboard?

Lol, lots of souls been sent, are going to be sent to the real 'hell', the Sun.

They might as well send a probe into the initial fireball of a nuclear weapon. I fail to see how the 'plunge' will be sending any data back.

The initial 'orbits' sure, that final plunge-- zzzt.

Edit:Oh, okay, not that close...

Solar Probe Plus will use seven Venus flybys over nearly seven years to gradually shrink its orbit around the Sun, coming as close as 3.7 million miles (5.9 million kilometers) to the Sun,

a reply to: swanne

I thought North Korea already landed, first humans on the Sun, no?

a reply to: swanne

You know that tiny gap of invisibility or clear space between source of fuel in a flame... that's the difference. If fuel was the same heat as the result then there wouldn't be any differentiation between the two of consumed and the consumption doing the consuming.

It would just be a big ball of fire without any cause for it or with an absence of fuel, that clear space it like a plus symbol between the two in cause and it's effect. If the plus symbol of something is hidden then it appears as an unknown.

My friend was taking about getting hit by several painful things and in his re-inactment it was one of bewilderment and flailing not knowing what the it or plus symbol was... come to find out he was getting stung by wasps but not seeing them or knowing the source he had no idea and was just reacting... he said it didn't connect because he had already been in and out of the door several times so just out right being attacked by something unseen as soon as he exited his door made no sense there was no plus sign to go oh wasps until the cause for all this pain and flailing about became a known.

Perhaps the probe will make it past the effect of the consumption and give the composition of that buffer or plus sign between the two to help identify the occurrence, of course since pretty much all natural phenomenon repeat even though cause and effect in form may appear different the effect or plus is essentially the same, when using thought experiments and observation to come up with a hypothesis for the hidden plus symbol to be able to give definition to what unknown is stinging the hell out of us in cause and effect.

If such can be simulated on the ground and Identified? Then on ground could save a lot of probe money and time involved.

Of course the information gleaned is frequently called invaluable as far as the actual expense goes in such things...