Solar Probe Delivers Fist Results

Since launching in August 2018, NASA's Parker Space Probe (PSP) has been on a mission to observe the Sun's atmosphere from increasingly close distances.

Now, the first results of the mission have just been published.

According to researchers, the probe has revealed a number of unexpected surprises about the Sun's activity.

The first of these involves the behavior of solar wind, the stream of particles constantly released by the Sun.

Thanks to the probe, scientists have discovered small holes in the Sun's corona - the outermost part of its atmosphere - which are cooler and less dense than the surrounding region.

The holes are responsible for producing the "slow" solar wind, one that travels at less than 500,000 kilometers per second.

Until now, the cause of this "slow" solar wind had been a mystery.

Another phenomenon that puzzled researchers was the temperature of the Sun's atmosphere.

While the surface of our home star is about 5,000 degrees Celsius, the temperature in its atmosphere exceeds one million degrees.

Normally, the temperature is expected to decrease the farther out one moves.

However, Parker observed that the particles in the solar wind are released in explosive bursts of energy, which could explain why that area is so hot.

The Parker Space Probe is set to end its current mission in 2024.

But that time, it will have whizzed by the Sun a total of 24 times, coming within 6.2 million kilometers of its surface.

Moreover, as it flies ever closer to the Sun, the craft will reach speeds of nearly 700,000 kilometers per hour.

"It's doing things no spacecraft has ever done before," exclaimed one researcher.

Currently, the probe has already smashed the previous records for speed and proximity to the Sun.

It remains to be seen what other mysteries it will uncover.

 

• probe proʊb 캐묻다, 캐다, 조사하다 (=investigate)  살피다[탐사/탐색하다] / (철저한) 조사  increasingly ɪnˈkriːsɪŋli  점점 더, 갈수록 더

• released rɪˈliːs  풀어 주다, 석방[해방]하다 , 발산하다[표출시키다]  outermost ˈaʊtərmoʊst (안·중심에서) 가장 바깥쪽의 

• dense dens 빽빽한, 밀집한  density  ˈdensəti 밀도(빽빽한 정도)  be responsible for  ~에 책임이 있다  responsibility rɪ|spɑːnsə│bɪləti 책무

• phenomenon fə|nɑːmɪnən 현상  puzzle ˈpʌzl 어리둥절하게[이해할 수 없게] 만들다 (=baffle) / 퍼즐, (머리를 써서) 알아맞히기

• explosive ɪk|│sploʊsɪv 폭발성의, 폭발하기 쉬운  explode ɪkˈsploʊd 터지다[터뜨리다], 폭발하다[폭파시키다] (=blow up) (→implode)

• burst bɜːrst 터지다, 파열하다, 터뜨리다, 파열시키다  be set to ~하도록 예정되어 있다  whiz wɪz 쌩[붕] 하고 지나가다

• Moreover mɔːr|oʊvər 게다가, 더욱이 (=in addition)  smash smæʃ 박살내다, 박살나다  proximity prɑːk|sɪməti  가까움[근접]