1 00:00:00,030 --> 00:00:02,669 all right so it is my pleasure to talk to you about NASA's Heliophysics 2 00:00:02,669 --> 00:00:07,410 division which is everything under the Sun, we like we like our acronyms we like 3 00:00:07,410 --> 00:00:11,639 our single words so we we came up with Heliophysics to really mean everything 4 00:00:11,639 --> 00:00:15,960 that the Sun controls everything that it looks after and everything that it 5 00:00:15,960 --> 00:00:20,640 impacts, so it impacts all the way from the very very close into the Sun all the 6 00:00:20,640 --> 00:00:24,570 way out to the very edge of our solar system as it actually shapes the very 7 00:00:24,570 --> 00:00:30,000 cavity that our solar system orbits around the Milky Way in and so we have a 8 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:34,530 fleet of spacecraft in the Heliophysics division that actually, oops, 9 00:00:34,530 --> 00:00:38,520 yes but actually study that we have a lot of spacecraft that are very close to 10 00:00:38,520 --> 00:00:42,000 the Earth they're looking at the ionosphere, thermosphere system we move 11 00:00:42,000 --> 00:00:47,940 out we cover the magnetosphere as we move further outside we can see our 12 00:00:47,940 --> 00:00:54,449 solar observatories that watch the Sun 24/7 you can see SOHO, Wind and ACE that 13 00:00:54,449 --> 00:00:58,199 are monitoring everything that is coming from the Sun in the solar wind and then 14 00:00:58,199 --> 00:01:02,789 if we move a little further out as we move away from Earth and we passed by 15 00:01:02,789 --> 00:01:07,710 the planet they or the orbit of Venus and Mercury then you'll see the very 16 00:01:07,710 --> 00:01:12,450 plucky Parker Solar Probe that is orbiting the Sun in very large petal 17 00:01:12,450 --> 00:01:17,130 orbits launched last year and already bringing great science results we've 18 00:01:17,130 --> 00:01:22,080 seen papers in nature and incredible science results presented here today and 19 00:01:22,080 --> 00:01:27,960 then going if we go even further out all the way out beyond Pluto to the very 20 00:01:27,960 --> 00:01:34,200 edge of our Heliosphere Voyager spacecraft that have been on on orbit or 21 00:01:34,200 --> 00:01:40,170 in space for now 42 years still sending back vital information to us about our 22 00:01:40,170 --> 00:01:44,909 very edge of space and in fact now interstellar space having crossed for 23 00:01:44,909 --> 00:01:52,950 the very first time out of the the sort of influence of our solar wind but very 24 00:01:52,950 --> 00:01:58,619 close to home we love our Sun it not only is it the Sun that that we we have 25 00:01:58,619 --> 00:02:03,630 to live with and it has big impacts on us but it's actually a star it's the 26 00:02:03,630 --> 00:02:08,099 only star right now that we can actually go and visit and so we go in and we 27 00:02:08,099 --> 00:02:12,410 study all of the the wonderful things that our star does 28 00:02:12,410 --> 00:02:15,890 we've looked at the Sun in just about every different wavelength possible 29 00:02:15,890 --> 00:02:21,500 we've been in as close as the planet Mercury but not until last year when we 30 00:02:21,500 --> 00:02:26,330 launched Parker Solar Probe will be able to really go into this magic region in 31 00:02:26,330 --> 00:02:29,840 this region where all of the action happens and you look at the Sun in 32 00:02:29,840 --> 00:02:34,340 visible it looks like a fairly uniform yellow disc you may see a couple of 33 00:02:34,340 --> 00:02:38,690 small blacks dark spots on it that we call sunspots but when you look at the 34 00:02:38,690 --> 00:02:42,290 Sun in any other wavelength you see that it's an incredibly incredibly active 35 00:02:42,290 --> 00:02:47,810 star regularly having events that throw billions of tons of this coronal 36 00:02:47,810 --> 00:02:56,660 material out into space often actually impacting our planet so here is Parker 37 00:02:56,660 --> 00:03:01,790 Solar Probe daring and flying very, very close to the Sun flying through the 38 00:03:01,790 --> 00:03:06,830 Sun's Corona the reason we needed to do this is that we there are mysteries in 39 00:03:06,830 --> 00:03:11,300 the Corona that we have not yet been able to explain one is that hazy 40 00:03:11,300 --> 00:03:16,220 atmosphere that you see during a total solar eclipse is about 300 times hotter 41 00:03:16,220 --> 00:03:20,440 than the surface of the Sun and that just doesn't really make sense also 42 00:03:20,440 --> 00:03:26,390 where we see this incredible heating we also see big acceleration and so the 43 00:03:26,390 --> 00:03:30,080 plasma that would normally be constrained on the magnetic field lines 44 00:03:30,080 --> 00:03:35,390 and held close to the Sun it's a big giant star it's got a big gravitational 45 00:03:35,390 --> 00:03:40,280 pole but despite that this material can actually be accelerated and move away 46 00:03:40,280 --> 00:03:46,670 from the Sun bathing all of the planets and indeed shaping our Heliosphere so 47 00:03:46,670 --> 00:03:50,450 we've had wonderful results from Parker's Solar Probe here at the meeting 48 00:03:50,450 --> 00:03:55,730 this is sort of a view of what Parker's Solar Probe is seeing during the first 49 00:03:55,730 --> 00:03:59,780 orbit and so you can see how big the Sun actually looks that gives you an idea of 50 00:03:59,780 --> 00:04:05,870 how close parker Solar Probe is to the Sun in the current configuration she's 51 00:04:05,870 --> 00:04:10,820 about 15 point eight million miles away from the Sun we will do a second 52 00:04:10,820 --> 00:04:16,489 Venus flyby in December, December 26 of this year and she will go to a smaller 53 00:04:16,489 --> 00:04:20,630 configuration and then her closest approach will be about 12 million miles 54 00:04:20,630 --> 00:04:26,670 away from the surface of the Sun so here's his data from the WISPR 55 00:04:26,670 --> 00:04:30,930 camera this is one of the the instruments aboard Parker Solar Probe 56 00:04:30,930 --> 00:04:34,980 this image it doesn't take it's not a traditional solar imager it doesn't take 57 00:04:34,980 --> 00:04:38,880 pictures of the Sun but it's taking pictures of the solar wind and all of 58 00:04:38,880 --> 00:04:43,170 the structures that the spacecraft is about to fly through it's extremely 59 00:04:43,170 --> 00:04:46,230 important for us because we're now in a in a region where we've never been 60 00:04:46,230 --> 00:04:51,540 before and so we're having these incredible data these these new results 61 00:04:51,540 --> 00:04:55,530 and it's really helping to be able to explain what we're seeing because we can 62 00:04:55,530 --> 00:05:00,510 look at the structures and the type of solar wind that we're flying through one 63 00:05:00,510 --> 00:05:05,580 of the big results that was published in nature last week was actually what we're 64 00:05:05,580 --> 00:05:09,390 calling switchbacks and so if you look at the magnetic field here this is a 65 00:05:09,390 --> 00:05:13,830 magnetic field line moving away from the Sun we would expect that magnetic field 66 00:05:13,830 --> 00:05:18,450 line to be straight but actually what we see is are these sort of s-shaped curves 67 00:05:18,450 --> 00:05:23,340 that we calling switchbacks and if you think of a magnetic field line a bit 68 00:05:23,340 --> 00:05:27,990 like a rubber rope it's extremely hard to get it to bend back and do this 69 00:05:27,990 --> 00:05:32,460 strange configuration so there is some kind of wave structure that is going on 70 00:05:32,460 --> 00:05:37,800 in the corona that is causing these s shapes to occur and as those s shapes 71 00:05:37,800 --> 00:05:43,110 relax they're letting an awful lot of energy out into the solar wind and so we 72 00:05:43,110 --> 00:05:46,770 think this is definitely one of the mechanisms that we're now seeing that is 73 00:05:46,770 --> 00:05:51,480 causing this heating and acceleration of the solar wind so even on the very first 74 00:05:51,480 --> 00:05:55,710 orbit of Parker Solar Probe we're already getting results for our 75 00:05:55,710 --> 00:06:00,960 overarching questions of why is that corona so hot and why is the solar wind 76 00:06:00,960 --> 00:06:07,080 continually accelerated, so when the when the solar wind, so when the Sun is very 77 00:06:07,080 --> 00:06:13,380 active we it will throw off these very large events also as I mentioned 78 00:06:13,380 --> 00:06:18,000 continually flowing not just when we see these large events but this solar wind 79 00:06:18,000 --> 00:06:22,440 is continually flowing so it's continually sending these huge streams 80 00:06:22,440 --> 00:06:28,950 of particles out into interstellar space so as as it leaves the Sun these 81 00:06:28,950 --> 00:06:33,030 particles will come and first of all they wrap around any of the planets that 82 00:06:33,030 --> 00:06:37,260 are that you know between the Sun and us and so I think 83 00:06:37,260 --> 00:06:43,170 you'll see the first thing as it goes past the planet Mercury and then on to 84 00:06:43,170 --> 00:06:47,550 the planet Venus and then it's kind of a strange feeling I feel like it's coming 85 00:06:47,550 --> 00:06:50,130 up to get me from behind but there's so it's going to go around 86 00:06:50,130 --> 00:06:53,880 the planet Venus Venus doesn't have a particularly strong magnetic field so it 87 00:06:53,880 --> 00:06:58,260 doesn't have a huge impact when it gets to Venus but you'll see the difference 88 00:06:58,260 --> 00:07:03,180 when those particles get to earth Earth has a very strong magnetic field and so 89 00:07:03,180 --> 00:07:07,650 that though our magnetic field will actually repel a lot of those particles 90 00:07:07,650 --> 00:07:13,650 that guides them around our magnetic environment our magnetosphere keeping 91 00:07:13,650 --> 00:07:19,740 most of that really dangerous radiation out and so you can see the way they get 92 00:07:19,740 --> 00:07:25,200 sort of channeled around of course some of the per some of the energy gets in 93 00:07:25,200 --> 00:07:29,070 just because we keep the the dangerous particles out we can actually get a lot 94 00:07:29,070 --> 00:07:34,080 of energy from the solar wind coming in and causing big configurations big 95 00:07:34,080 --> 00:07:38,910 changes in our magnetic field and those changes in the magnetic field actually 96 00:07:38,910 --> 00:07:43,950 give rise to the very beautiful Northern lights Northern and Southern lights I 97 00:07:43,950 --> 00:07:48,810 should say and so as all this energy comes into the magnetosphere as the 98 00:07:48,810 --> 00:07:53,550 magnetosphere kind of relaxes these particles come shooting down the field 99 00:07:53,550 --> 00:07:58,620 lines they impact the ionosphere and they impact the gases that we find in 100 00:07:58,620 --> 00:08:02,840 the ionosphere so mostly that is oxygen and nitrogen and they cause it to glow 101 00:08:02,840 --> 00:08:10,530 so that the colors that you see in the aurora a fingerprint of what what gas is 102 00:08:10,530 --> 00:08:15,870 actually glowing so where you see green that is an oxygen line if you see blue 103 00:08:15,870 --> 00:08:21,210 or red it is typically nitrogen ik red can also be oxygen too but this is a 104 00:08:21,210 --> 00:08:26,610 nice shot this is actually the Aurora Australis as the the space station goes 105 00:08:26,610 --> 00:08:31,320 over the southern hemisphere taking beautiful images of the Aurora and also 106 00:08:31,320 --> 00:08:38,490 some air glow so whenever we see big events not only do we see the Aurora 107 00:08:38,490 --> 00:08:45,450 which has definite impacts for power grids but we can also see our radiation 108 00:08:45,450 --> 00:08:49,310 belts so the Earth is encircled by two belts of there 109 00:08:49,310 --> 00:08:53,690 very intense radiation when we have these really big storms these belts can 110 00:08:53,690 --> 00:08:59,779 pump up both in energy and also in size which means the spacecraft that are not 111 00:08:59,779 --> 00:09:04,460 designed and do not expect to be in the radiation belts can suddenly find 112 00:09:04,460 --> 00:09:10,820 themselves engulfed by these huge, huge radiation storms we had we had the Van 113 00:09:10,820 --> 00:09:15,650 Allen probes that recently we had to say goodbye to our Van Allen probes because 114 00:09:15,650 --> 00:09:20,750 they ran out of fuel but we've had seven years of incredible data from those two 115 00:09:20,750 --> 00:09:25,070 spacecraft that have lived and worked in this region of incredible dangerous 116 00:09:25,070 --> 00:09:29,720 radiation and so that's another so we have the Aurora we also have the 117 00:09:29,720 --> 00:09:34,130 radiation belts and then if we come down just a little bit further we also see 118 00:09:34,130 --> 00:09:39,260 impacts in the ionosphere system so where you would expect radio waves to 119 00:09:39,260 --> 00:09:44,990 kind of bounce off or even travel through as we use our GPS signals we see 120 00:09:44,990 --> 00:09:50,300 a lot of these storms that cause kind of bubbles in that region which can stop 121 00:09:50,300 --> 00:09:55,760 the radio signals passing through them and so we see every single piece of 122 00:09:55,760 --> 00:10:00,589 technology almost that you can imagine is is clearly impacted by space weather 123 00:10:00,589 --> 00:10:06,710 and so it's impacted by the solar wind and its effect on our planet and so of 124 00:10:06,710 --> 00:10:10,850 course we worry about our technology we worry about our spacecraft we worry 125 00:10:10,850 --> 00:10:15,950 about the space station we have passenger passenger planes that fly 126 00:10:15,950 --> 00:10:20,270 across the polar routes they can be affected when you get large amounts of 127 00:10:20,270 --> 00:10:26,120 radiation coming in it can also stop communication for the polar routes for 128 00:10:26,120 --> 00:10:30,260 the ships as they're going across there but most importantly for us here at NASA 129 00:10:30,260 --> 00:10:35,750 it can cause problems for our astronauts safety and so as we as we stand ready to 130 00:10:35,750 --> 00:10:39,740 support the Artemis program the number one thing of course for us is to protect 131 00:10:39,740 --> 00:10:43,820 our astronauts and the way we do that is by making these measurements with the 132 00:10:43,820 --> 00:10:48,830 heliophysics fleet to really understand what is happening with the solar wind 133 00:10:48,830 --> 00:10:53,480 and how that is going to impact our astronauts particularly with Artemis 134 00:10:53,480 --> 00:10:57,530 we're not just going to have very short excursions up to the moon and back but 135 00:10:57,530 --> 00:11:01,760 we're getting ready to do extended presence in space and so we'll be out in 136 00:11:01,760 --> 00:11:05,460 the pristine solar wind and so it makes our job in heliophysics 137 00:11:05,460 --> 00:11:09,660 just that bit more important and a bit more challenging as we now have to be 138 00:11:09,660 --> 00:11:15,710 able to predict what is going to come from the Sun and impact our astronauts 139 00:11:15,710 --> 00:11:22,950 and then the final thing of course we do in Heliophysics not only do we we worry 140 00:11:22,950 --> 00:11:26,340 about everything that happens here at earth we worry about everything that 141 00:11:26,340 --> 00:11:31,470 happens throughout the entire Solar System the the solar wind beats all of 142 00:11:31,470 --> 00:11:35,850 the planets it's still there at Pluto it continues beyond and further and further 143 00:11:35,850 --> 00:11:41,370 and then at the very edge sort of runs out of steam if you like it slows down 144 00:11:41,370 --> 00:11:47,280 and it meets interstellar space and there is a boundary between the solar 145 00:11:47,280 --> 00:11:50,880 wind and interstellar space that is continually moving and it kind of 146 00:11:50,880 --> 00:11:55,890 breathes with a solar system and so at solar maximum the the boundary is 147 00:11:55,890 --> 00:12:01,410 further away at solar minimum it kind of breathes in and so we have a very brave 148 00:12:01,410 --> 00:12:06,420 Voyager spacecraft that have actually left the heliosphere they are out in 149 00:12:06,420 --> 00:12:11,600 interstellar space we also have the IBEX mission which is taking images of the 150 00:12:11,600 --> 00:12:16,980 particles that are out in this boundary region and we're also getting ready in a 151 00:12:16,980 --> 00:12:21,000 couple of years to launch a follow-on mission called IMAP that will really do 152 00:12:21,000 --> 00:12:24,810 a great job of doing sort of high-resolution maps of that outer 153 00:12:24,810 --> 00:12:33,780 boundary of space and so I will leave you with with my Heliophysics logo it is 154 00:12:33,780 --> 00:12:38,250 a great time to be a Helio physicist we have made an awful lot of new selections 155 00:12:38,250 --> 00:12:43,500 we're bringing a lot of new missions into our fleet and we are we are really 156 00:12:43,500 --> 00:12:47,490 enjoying the tremendous results the tremendous data that we're getting of 157 00:12:47,490 --> 00:12:52,230 course Parker Solar Probe with all the new data we also this year launched ICON 158 00:12:52,230 --> 00:12:56,250 which is a mission that is looking at kind of the interplay with terrestrial 159 00:12:56,250 --> 00:13:01,260 weather so storms and hurricanes and tornados from below and how they 160 00:13:01,260 --> 00:13:04,950 actually impact with the space weather coming in from above there's a very 161 00:13:04,950 --> 00:13:10,080 fragile region that aware these two systems are actually working together so 162 00:13:10,080 --> 00:13:13,800 it's a really nice interaction for us with Earth science and that's yet 163 00:13:13,800 --> 00:13:18,270 another new mission that we have and so all of the data that we take in 164 00:13:18,270 --> 00:13:21,270 Heliophysics is really driven by the solar wind and 165 00:13:21,270 --> 00:13:27,240 therefore we send we're very excited to support the Artemis mission and as we as 166 00:13:27,240 --> 00:13:31,320 we lean forward and we go forward to the moon to the Mars and beyond the Heliophysics 167 00:13:31,320 --> 00:13:36,110 Division stands ready to support the mission thank you very much