Sun seeker

Nasa yesterday successfully launched its

£1.2 billion Parker Solar Probe from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The unmanned spacecraft’s seven-year mission is to get closer to the Sun than ever before and investigate the danger that solar storms pose to the Earth by plunging into the star’s atmosphere, known as the corona. The probe is guarded by a shield that can endure unprecedented levels of heat, and radiation levels 500 times that experienced on Earth.