Parker Solar Probe

A NASA spacecraft launched in 2018 to study the Sun’s corona and inner heliosphere. It makes repeated close approaches to the Sun, using a heat shield to protect its instruments.

Solar gravity assist: A spacecraft trajectory change produced by passing near a massive body and exchanging orbital energy with it. Repeated Venus flybys reduce the probe’s orbital energy and bring it closer to the Sun.
Eugene Parker: An American astrophysicist who predicted the solar wind and developed theories of the Sun’s magnetic activity. The probe honors Parker, whose solar-wind theory helped define its scientific aims.
Solar corona: The Sun’s tenuous outer atmosphere, extending millions of kilometers into space. Direct sampling of this region is the mission’s defining achievement.
First Parker Solar Probe perihelion: Parker Solar Probe’s first closest approach to the Sun, reached on November 6, 2018. This milestone began in situ measurements closer to the Sun than any earlier spacecraft.
Venus flyby: A spacecraft’s close passage by Venus, used to alter its trajectory through gravity. Parker Solar Probe uses seven Venus flybys to tighten its orbit around the Sun.
Solar Probe mission: A long-proposed NASA mission concept to send a spacecraft close to the Sun. Parker Solar Probe is the realized version of this decades-old mission concept.
Solar wind: A continuous flow of charged particles streaming outward from the Sun. Parker measures the wind close to its source, before it evolves through space.
Solar switchback: A sudden reversal in the direction of the solar magnetic field carried by the solar wind. Parker revealed abundant switchbacks near the Sun, raising new questions about their origin.
Parker Solar Probe heat shield: A carbon-composite shield that protects Parker Solar Probe from intense solar heating. It keeps the spacecraft’s instruments shaded during close solar encounters.
Solar Orbiter: A European Space Agency and NASA mission launched in 2020 to study the Sun from a range of distances. It complements Parker with remote imaging and a different orbit rather than repeated close passes.

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