NASA is about to go where no one has
gone before the Sun that's right
NASA is flying a 1.5 billion dollar
spacecraft into the hottest most violent
object in our solar system all in the
name of science
NASA's unmanned Parker Solar Probe will
come within three point eight three
million miles of the solar surface now
that doesn't sound very close but it's
about seven times closer than any
spacecraft has ever gone before and it
puts the probe smack inside one of the
Suns most treacherous layers the corona
the outermost layer of the Sun here the
temperatures fluctuate from one to five
million degrees Fahrenheit and solar
flares exist that are so big they could
swallow our planet whole so why are we
going here again it turns out the Sun
poses a major threat to our modern way
of life powerful magnetic fields form
near the sun's surface where they
sometimes spark violent eruptions called
coronal mass ejections these ejections
fire a surge of highly charged particles
into space that will fry any electronic
circuits on impact that includes
circuits inside our satellites that
control cell service the internet GPS
the stock exchange and much much more in
2014 for example astrophysicist Daniel
and Baker explained what may happen if
one of these powerful storms hit earth
directly explaining it could cause
widespread power blackouts disabling
everything that plugs into a wall socket
most people wouldn't even be able to
flush their toilet because urban water
supplies largely rely on electric pumps
such a strike could cost an estimated
two trillion dollars in damage 10 times
more than Hurricane Katrina now luckily
space is a big place which makes Earth a
relatively small and tricky target
in fact the last time a powerful storm
like this struck our planet was more
than a hundred and fifty years ago back
in 1859 but the risk is there and NASA
predicts there's a 12 percent chance we
could get hit within the next decade
that's where the Parker Solar Probe
comes in the probe can't prevent an
ejection from happening but it can study
the corona so that we may better
understand the warning signs of an
impending storm and with enough notice
we may be able to protect our satellites
from harm in addition to spying on the
Sun parker Solar Probe has another very
important job don't melt
to that end nASA has prepped the probe
with four highly tuned sensors and an
impressive heat shield that will protect
the probes instruments the sensors are
there to make sure the shield stays
directed at the Sun at all times the
mission will involve not one or two but
24 dives into the Sun char all scheduled
to take place through the year 2025
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