Such a big event happened at 3 am local time in August 12 in the United States.
The Delta-4 heavy rocket of the United Launch Alliance of the United States was successfully launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Base, Florida, carrying the "Parker" solar probe.
The Parker probe began a seven-year daily adventure. This will be the first time that an artificial spacecraft crosses the corona and "faces" the sun.
It is estimated that this "car-sized" unmanned detector will start flying around the sun in early October of 165438+, and will receive the first batch of "solar signals" as early as February this year. Moreover, according to NASA's forecast, Parker will reach the nearest place to the sun in June and February, 2024, and Parker will cross the corona 24 times before the end of the exploration activity in June, 2025.
Why is the solar probe called "Parker"? This is about to mention a great man.
Eugene Parker, an academician of American Academy of Sciences, is the founder of modern solar wind and magnetic reconnection theory. He predicted the existence of the solar wind as early as 1958.
In order to thank Eugene Parker for his outstanding contribution in the field of astrophysics, people decided to name the solar probe after his surname.
Eugene Parker is at the launch site
On the day of launch, Parker, 9 1 year-old, watched the whole event at the air base. After the rocket was launched, he said on NASA radio: "This journey has finally begun! I am honored to be associated with such a great scientific space mission. "
Look at the scene map and you will know that the old academician is very excited!
In addition, a nameplate and a chip are attached to the Parker Solar Detector. The nameplate reads: "Dedicated to Eugene who focuses on the study of the sun and the solar wind? Dr. Parker, his contribution has completely changed our understanding of the sun and the solar wind. " In addition to Dr. Parker's name, the chip also stores the names of more than 165438+ ten thousand people, and will travel with the detector every day.
There are three new breakthroughs in this large-scale human "touch" day:
The first breakthrough is, how did Parker "embrace" the sun without being damaged by melting? After all, "Parker" needs to cross the corona many times, and the corona is warmer than the surface temperature of the sun.
This makes the unique design of Parker detector. The design of the first "Parker" detector enables it to adapt to temperature fluctuations under extreme conditions. In addition, although the temperature of the corona layer is high, the particle activity is not frequent and the heat energy transfer is not active, thus reducing the damage to the detector.
Secondly, the "Parker" detector has its own micro-sensor, which is distributed on the shadow edge of the heat shield to form an inductive "protective shield". Once it senses that a certain part is heated, it will automatically adjust its running direction.
Thermal protection coating
The third and most important thing is the heat shield and cooling system of Parker detector. "Parker" solar detector uses a kind of heat insulation board called thermal protection system, which is a carbon board with composite foam. This lightweight thermal insulation material is also coated with a white ceramic coating to reflect as much heat as possible.
Don't underestimate the protection of these inches. As long as you hide on the other side of the protective cover, the body of the detector will remain comfortable at 30 degrees Celsius, which can ensure the safety of all instruments. A cooling system will be used in unshielded places to keep this part running normally.
The second breakthrough is that this time, flying to the embrace of the sun, the "Parker" detector will break the speed record of human artificial aircraft. Scientists have increased the speed of the spacecraft to a top speed of 500,000 miles per hour, which is equivalent to less than one minute from Chicago to Beijing. When Parker approaches the sun, it needs to slow down. At this time, "Parker" will rely on the gravity of our neighbor planet Venus to slow down properly. During the whole mission, it will fly seven times with its help, and every time it helps, we will be closer to the sun.
The last breakthrough is because this is the first time that humans have reached the atmosphere of a star by spaceship, so they want to explore too much. So the designer set up four instrument suites on the detector to study the solar magnetic field, plasma, high-energy particles and solar wind (solar wind is a charged gas flow from the sun, which exists in most solar systems). It is heading for the earth at the speed of/kloc-0.00 million miles per hour, which may cause destructive space weather affecting our earth.
The research data obtained by "Parker" detector will help humans track the energy and heat of the sun and solve the question "How did millions of degrees of high temperature form in the corona?" "How did the solar wind accelerate to supersonic speed?" A problem that has puzzled astronomy for decades. Moreover, we can further understand the influence of extreme events such as solar flare and coronal mass ejection on the earth, which is helpful to improve the prediction of major space weather events. When extreme weather in space destroys the earth, human beings can respond urgently to reduce the damage to human living environment in extreme cases.
The great adventure around the sun has begun, and there will be more surprises waiting for us in the next seven years!