Sun ID: 13113

AGU 2018 - Expected Data and Scientific Discovery from NASA’s Parker Solar Probe

Released on December 12, 2018

Speakers:
Nicky Fox, Director, Heliophysics Division, NASA
Nour Raouafi, Parker Solar Probe Project Scientist, JHUAPL
Terry Kucera, STEREO Project Scientist, NASA GSFC
Pete Riley, Senior Scientist, Predictive Science Inc

Download related briefing materials from Dec. 12’s press conference at the 2018 American Geophysical Union meeting.

Weeks after Parker Solar Probe made the closest-ever approach to a star, the science data from the encounter is just making its way into the hands of the mission's scientists. It's a moment many in the field have been anticipating for years, thinking about what they'll do with such never-before-seen data that has the potential to shed new light on the physics of our star.

On Dec. 12, four such researchers gathered at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in Washington, D.C., to share what they hope to learn from Parker Solar Probe.

First light data from Parker Solar Probe's WISPR (Wide-field Imager for Solar Probe) instrument suite. The right side of this image — from WISPR's inner telescope — has a 40-degree field of view, with its right edge 58.5 degrees from the Sun's center. The bright object slightly to the right of the image's center is Jupiter. The left side of the image is from WISPR's outer telescope, which has a 58-degree field of view and extends to about 160 degrees from the Sun. There is a parallax of about 13 degrees in the apparent position of the Sun as viewed from Earth and from Parker Solar Probe.

Credit: NASA/Naval Research Laboratory/Parker Solar Probe

Early data from the Solar Probe Cup, part of the SWEAP (Solar Wind Electrons Alphas and Protons) instrument suite aboard Parker Solar Probe, showing a gust of solar wind (the red streak). Credit: NASA/University of Michigan/Parker Solar Probe

At its closest approach on Nov. 5, called perihelion, Parker Solar Probe reached a top speed of 213,200 miles per hour, setting a new record for spacecraft speed. Mission controllers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab received the status beacon from the spacecraft at 4:46 p.m. EST on Nov. 7, 2018. The beacon indicated status "A" — the best of all four possible status signals, meaning that Parker Solar Probe was operating well with all instruments running and collecting science data and, if there were any minor issues, they were resolved autonomously by the spacecraft. Credit: APL

First light data from EPI-Lo (the lower-energy Energetic Particle Instrument), part of the ISʘIS (Integrated Science Investigation of the Sun) suite aboard Parker Solar Probe. Credit: NASA/Princeton University/Parker Solar Probe

This plot was updated on Sept. 21, 2018, to better illustrate the comparison between Parker Solar Probe’s data (center and bottom) and the data from the Wind mission (top). Credit: NASA/UC Berkeley/Parker Solar Probe

This image from Parker Solar Probe's WISPR (Wide-field Imager for Solar Probe) instrument shows a coronal streamer, seen over the east limb of the Sun on Nov. 8, 2018, at 1:12 a.m. EST. Coronal streamers are structures of solar material within the Sun's atmosphere, the corona, that usually overlie regions of increased solar activity. The fine structure of the streamer is very clear, with at least two rays visible. Parker Solar Probe was about 16.9 million miles from the Sun's surface when this image was taken. The bright object near the center of the image is Mercury, and the dark spots are a result of background correction.

Credit: NASA/Naval Research Laboratory/Parker Solar Probe

Data from images aboard the STEREO-A spacecraft along with the location of Parker as it flies through the sun’s outer atmosphere. Images will allow us to provide key context for understanding the Parker observations. Credit: NASA/GSFC

This video clip shows actual data from NASA’s Solar and Terrestrial Relations Observatory Ahead (STEREO-A) spacecraft, along with the location of Parker Solar Probe as it flies through the Sun’s outer atmosphere during its first solar encounter phase in November 2018. Such images will allow us to provide key context for understanding Parker Solar Probe’s observations. Credit: NASA/STEREO

In situ measurements from various spacecraft enable scientists to see how things change with time as they flow past Parker and out through the solar system. Credit: NASA/STEREO

Credits

Nicola Fox (NASA): Scientist
Nour Raouafi (Johns Hopkins University/APL): Scientist
Therese Kucera (NASA/GSFC): Scientist
Pete Riley (Predictive Science Inc.): Scientist
Sarah Frazier (ADNET Systems, Inc.): Science Writer
Genna Duberstein (USRA): Producer

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center