Nasa launches mission to ‘ touch the Sun’
> Fastest manmade object ever will fly directly through outer solar atmosphere
TAMPA: Nasa yesterday blasted off a US$1.5 billion (RM6 billion) spacecraft towards the Sun on a historic mission to protect the Earth by unveiling the mysteries of dangerous solar storms.
The Parker Solar Probe soared skywards aboard a Delta IV-Heavy rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida at 3.31am (3.31pm in Malaysia) yesterday.
Within two minutes of takeoff, Nasa’s ground control were able to confirm its trajectory and flight “looked good”.
A voice could be heard saying: “A daring mission to shed light on the mysteries of our closest star.”
Over the next seven years, Parker will fly directly through the Sun’s roasting hot outer atmosphere in a bid to unlock some of the solar system’s greatest secrets.
In particular, scientists hope it will provide information about solar winds and solar energy particles.
The craft will be the fastest man-made object ever and endure temperatures of more than 1,300°C while looping round the Sun a planned 24 times while sending data back to Earth.
At some points, it will move to just 3.83 million miles from the star’s broiling surface.
One of those watching the historic moment was Dr Eugene Parker, the 91-year-old scientist who first suggested the possibility of solar winds in 1958 and whom the craft is named after.
“All I can say is ‘Wow, here we go, we’re in for some learning over the next several years’,” he said.
“It’s a whole new phase and it’s gonna be fascinating throughout ... and we’re just waiting for the data now so the experts can get busy because there’s a lot of data that will be coming in.”
Hundreds of thousands more watched online with many sending messages of goodwill via social media.
The mission has been more than two decades in the making and has now been enabled by the breakthroughs in thermal engineering that will allow the small probe to survive despite the blazing heat.
The successful launch followed an aborted take-off on Saturday morning. – The