Till today space agencies have launched several spacecraft to explore planets and moon, but never investigated any star. First time NASA is going to launch $1.5 billion aircraft named “Parker Solar Probe” on 11th August 2018 to explore Sun. it will be launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, US.
Image credit The Parker Solar Probe
The Sun’s atmosphere is called the corona which throws out powerful plasma and energetic particles that make the atmosphere nearly 300-times hotter than the Sun’s surface. The probe will explore geomagnetic space storms released by the hot plasma and charged particles in the sun’s atmosphere.
The parker probe has to investigate several things such as flow of energy in the sun’s atmosphere, the heating of corona, solar wind acceleration. In addition, it will snap the images of solar structures.
You may now have a query that what will protect the probe from the sun’s powerful radiation?
An ultra-powerful heat shield covers the probe to protect it from the sun’s powerful radiation and hot plasma. Its thickness is 4.5 inches. The shield is enough capable to save the probe from the sun’s strong radiation in its atmosphere and maintain the temperature up to 29 degrees Celsius inside of the spacecraft.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/science/parker-solar-probe-nasa-sets-out-to-explore-the-sun/articleshow/65363409.cms