COLORADO — On Christmas Eve, NASA will make history with the Parker Solar Probe.
News5 had the opportunity to talk with NASA Heliophysicist, Dr. Adam Szabo.
He's the Chief of the Heliospheric Physics Laboratory at NASA Goddard and the Mission Scientist for the Parker Solar Probe.
At its surface, Dr. Sazbo explains that the sun is only 4,500 degrees Fahrenheit, but the solar wind reaches those million-degree temperatures - a phenomenon NASA doesn't yet understand.
He says "When you go in an airplane, go higher and higher, it's not hotter and hotter, if you look at the temperatures outside of the airplane, it's really cold. That's what we would expect with the sun too - but that's not what's happening."
Parker Solar Probe, originally launched on August 12, 2018, intends to understand solar wind.
Dr. Szabo explains that solar wind is the "expanding atmosphere of the sun. It's the corona we see during solar eclipses. It starts its life moving very slowly and all of a sudden it becomes supersonic and super hot - a million degrees in temperature."
On the morning of December 24, Christmas Eve, the Parker Solar Probe will become the first man-made object within 3.8 million miles of the sun.
Although this may sound too far to fathom, the distance is "more than 20 times closer to the sun than Earth is," according to Dr. Sazbo, "no other mission is anywhere near."
The project will also be flying at approximately 430,000 mph, according to NASA. They say at that speed, you could get from Philadelphia to Washington D.C. in one second.
At that distance and speed, Parker Solar Probe will be experiencing 1,000,000-degree temperatures, but its internal instruments will stay at room temperature or 85 degrees Fahrenheit.
I asked Dr. Szabo how that's possible, and what technological advancements were made to accomplish this.
"Space is really empty." He says, "The front of the spacecraft will be still plenty hot - it will be 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit. That's hot...."
"The technological advance that was required to make this mission possible is the development of a Thermo shield."
Dr. Szabo says that although there's enough fuel for a century of exploration, the project is estimated to last a decade, due to solar panels and other instruments deteriorating in the heat.
When asked about the aspect he's most excited about, he expressed gratitude and pride for the community that's been created as a result of the project's mission.
"I have been working in this area for over 30 years. So, for me, this is the culmination of a scientific career." He says, "I am particularly proud of the community. Parker Solar Probe developed a scientific community that includes the people that started 50 years ago and includes young people who are just at the beginning of their scientific career."
For more information on Parker Solar Probe's journey to the sun, you can follow them on social media @NASASun or at NASA.gov/Parker
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