Hot news! Mankind has ‘touched’ the Sun

Pioneering space probe flies into 3.6million degrees – and out again

MANKIND has touched the Sun for the first time with a historic space mission.

Nasa said its £1.13billion Parker Solar Probe had plunged through the solar atmosphere – known as the corona – where temperatures can reach 3.6million F (2million C).

The flyby, which saw the craft dip in and out three times in five hours, was ‘a giant stride for humanity’ comparable to the Moon landings, the space agency said.

The Sun is a mass of superheated gas surrounded by the corona – swirling streams of intensely hot and radioactive particles around 8million miles from the visible surface.

‘Just as landing on the Moon allowed scientists to understand how it was formed, touching the Sun is a gigantic stride for humanity to help us uncover critical information about our closest star and its influence on the Solar System,’ said Nicola Fox, director of Nasa’s heliophysics science division.

Launched three years ago, the spacecraft moves at up to 430,000mph – making it the fastest man-made object. The

‘Streaming out across space’

close encounter occurred in April but it has taken this long for the data to reach Earth and be analysed.

The probe’s exposed instruments heated up to around 2,370F (1,300C), withstanding radiation 500 times stronger than on Earth. It survived the heat because each dip into the corona is so brief. It is also protected by a heat shield.

The outer edge of the corona is the point where solar material that is normally bound to the Sun by gravity breaks free to stream out across space creating what is known as the solar wind.

The Parker science team will gather more data as the probe ventures deeper into the corona, coming within 3.7million miles of the Sun’s surface.

Parker’s insights, and other observations, could help scientists to predict solar storms, large bursts of charged particles ejected from the Sun.

An intense solar storm could damage satellites and hit power supplies.

The probe was named after American solar astrophysicist Eugene Parker.