In late 2021, we shared a sequence of pictures taken by NASA’s Parker Photo voltaic Probe because it flew by way of—and touched—the solar’s higher ambiance, or corona. These beautiful captures offered an unprecedented glimpse of the huge star from inside its magnetic subject.
Final week, NASA launched a brand new batch of pictures from the probe because it traveled even nearer to the solar. On December 24, 2024, the spacecraft reached 3.8 million miles from the floor, a distance that allowed its Large-Discipline Imager for Photo voltaic Probe (WISPR) to doc the regular stream of electrically charged particles often called photo voltaic winds.
Roaring all through the photo voltaic system, these winds are answerable for lots of the weather-related phenomena we expertise right here on Earth, notably as they collide and breach the magnetic subject surrounding the solar. “Together with outbursts of material and magnetic currents from the sun, it helps generate auroras, strip planetary atmospheres, and induce electric currents that can overwhelm power grids and affect communications at Earth,” an announcement says.
Researchers add that realizing extra about these ejections, which are sometimes unpredictable and might seriously change route upon collision, will assist to higher put together astronauts and scientists for the area climate occasions which have wide-reaching results on Earth and past.
It’s price watching NASA’s explainer video above for extra perception into these groundbreaking pictures, and maintain an eye fixed out for extra of the Parker Photo voltaic Probe’s findings within the coming months. The spacecraft is scheduled for its subsequent enterprise this September. (by way of PetaPixel)
