Parker Solar Probe Stories
Multiple Spacecraft Tell the Story of One Giant Solar Storm
April 17, 2021, was a day like any other day on the Sun, until a brilliant flash erupted and an enormous cloud of solar material billowed away from our star. Such outbursts from the Sun are not unusual, but this…
Solar Secrets Unveiled: Planetarium Program Showcases Parker Solar Probe Discoveries
In January, the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) hosted its monthly planetarium program, offering attendees an insightful journey into the study of our solar system’s star. On January 23, 2024, Dr. Nour Raouafi, project scientist of the Parker Solar…
NASA Missions Find ‘Jetlets’ Could Power the Solar Wind
Scientists with NASA’s Parker Solar Probe mission have uncovered significant new clues about the origins of the solar wind – a continual stream of charged particles released from the Sun that fills the solar system. Observations from multiple space and…
NASA Enters the Solar Atmosphere for the First Time, Bringing New Discoveries
A major milestone and new results from NASA’s Parker Solar Probe were announced on Dec. 14 in a press conference at the 2021 American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting in New Orleans. The results have been published in Physical Review Letters…
NASA Scientist Kelly Korreck on the Journey to the Sun, and What It Takes to Get There
Sixty years ago, NASA set an out-of-this-world goal: to touch our Sun. Sending a spacecraft to the fiery star at the center of our solar system is no small feat. From engineering a spacecraft that could hurtle 430,000 mph through…
Five Weird Things That Happen in Outer Space
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know space is weird. But just how weird might surprise you. Space is dominated by invisible electromagnetic forces that we typically don’t feel. It’s also full of bizarre types of matter that we…
Parker Solar Probe Team Earns Aerospace Award from the National Space Club and Foundation
After nearly three years in space, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has not only made numerous passes around our fiery orb, inching closer to the Sun than any spacecraft before it, but it has also ushered in discoveries that are shaping scientists’ understanding…
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Discovers Natural Radio Emission in Venus’ Atmosphere
During a brief swing by Venus, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe detected a natural radio signal that revealed the spacecraft had flown through the planet’s upper atmosphere. This was the first direct measurement of the Venusian atmosphere in nearly 30 years…
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Sees Venus Orbital Dust Ring in 1st Complete View
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe mission has given scientists the first complete look at Venus’ orbital dust ring, a collection of microscopic dust particles that circulates around the Sun along Venus’ orbit. Though earlier missions have made some observations of Venus’…
Switchbacks Science: Explaining Parker Solar Probe’s Magnetic Puzzle
When NASA’s Parker Solar Probe sent back the first observations from its voyage to the Sun, scientists found signs of a wild ocean of currents and waves quite unlike the near-Earth space much closer to our planet. This ocean was…