Latest Discoveries

Parker is now the closest spacecraft to the Sun, and it will get even closer in the next few years, allowing us to collect never-before-seen details about the solar wind and radiation. It has shown us just how deceptively simple our view of the Sun from Earth can be, as it reached the source of the high-energy solar particles that endanger our spacecraft and communication system.

Here are 5 of the observations made by Parker during this first operational period:

It provided us with the evidence that the cosmic dust that fills the space stops at about 5.6 million kilometres from the Sun. This is because the Sun vaporizes the dust as it tries to get closer, creating a dust-free area around the star.

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The magnetic field lines, which seem to flow evenly out from the Sun, actually flip as if they were a whip and turn 180 degrees in a matter of seconds. The changes come in clusters and were timed according to clumps of plasma in the solar wind.

Parker has discovered that the solar wind has a rough texture, with the plasma lacking any sense of direction. While a part of the solar material is fired up towards space, some of it falls back into the Sun, distorting the magnetic field and causing the whip-like motion of the magnetic field lines.

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A transition point was also found for when the solar wind goes from moving in a rotational way around the Sun, in accordance with the corona where it begins its trajectory, to flowing in a straight line as it does when it reaches Earth. Parker finally found out the exact point where it switches its behaviour, and it is significantly further out than scientists expected.

Thanks to Parker’s front row to the show that is solar activity, we have been able to detect tiny bursts of solar energetic particles, smaller than anything ever seen before. Such small regular emissions, which are not strong enough to be detected from Earth, can be quite significant in the study of the fast-moving particles which can damage our technology and astronauts.

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All these are groundbreaking discoveries that could help us in the future to develop new ways to protect us from the detrimental effects that solar storms could have on our daily lives. For more on how the Sun affects us click here.