University of Michigan: Solving the Sun’s Super-Heating Mystery with Parker Solar Probe
Posted on 2019-06-06 12:11:31It’s one of the greatest and longest-running mysteries surrounding, quite literally, our sun—why is its outer atmosphere hotter than its fiery surface?
University of Michigan researchers believe they have the answer, and hope to prove it with help from NASA’s Parker Solar Probe. In roughly two years, the probe will be the first manmade craft to enter the zone surrounding the sun where heating looks fundamentally different than what has previously been seen in space. This will allow them to test their theory that the heating is due to small magnetic waves traveling back and forth within the zone.
“Whatever the physics is behind this superheating, it’s a puzzle that has been staring us in the eye for 500 years,” said Justin Kasper, a U-M professor of climate and space sciences and the principal investigator of the Solar Wind Electrons Alphas and Protons (SWEAP) Investigation on the mission. “In just two more years Parker Solar Probe will finally reveal the answer.”
Read the entire article at the University of Michigan website.
Below are "first light" images from Parker Solar Probe's instruments, including SWEAP, released in Sept. 2018.
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Credit: NASA/University of Michigan/Parker Solar Probe
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Credit: NASA/University of Michigan/Parker Solar Probe
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Credit: NASA/UC Berkeley/Parker Solar Probe
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Credit: NASA/UC Berkeley/Parker Solar Probe
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Credit: NASA/Princeton University/Parker Solar Probe
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Credit: NASA/Princeton University/Parker Solar Probe
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Credit: NASA/Naval Research Laboratory/Parker Solar Probe
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