Parker Solar Probe: Mission Status and Outlook After One Year of Operation
Abstract
NASA's Parker Solar Probe, which launched on August 12, 2018, flew closer to our star than any spacecraft has come before. Parker Solar Probe completed two solar orbits and started the third one, all with a perihelion of 35.6 Solar Radii. The second Venus gravity assist will take place on December 26, 2019, after which the orbit perihelion will decrease to 27.8 Solar Radii. Parker will potentially revolutionize our understanding of this mysterious region by answering questions that puzzled scientists for decades: how the solar wind is heated and accelerated and how solar energetic particles are accelerated and transported throughout the heliosphere.Data from the first two orbits show plasma properties that have not been observed before in the solar wind.The initial results of the mission and the data from the first two orbits will be published in the fall. We provide an overview on the status and outlook of the mission after the first year of operation.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019AGUFMSH11A..01R
- Keywords:
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- 7509 Corona;
- SOLAR PHYSICS;
- ASTROPHYSICS;
- AND ASTRONOMY;
- 7513 Coronal mass ejections;
- SOLAR PHYSICS;
- ASTROPHYSICS;
- AND ASTRONOMY;
- 7845 Particle acceleration;
- SPACE PLASMA PHYSICS;
- 7867 Wave/particle interactions;
- SPACE PLASMA PHYSICS