Here are some of the key discoveries and ideas that led to our current understanding of the corona and the solar wind, leading up to the newest spacecraft in NASA’s Heliophysics fleet.
On its mission to the Sun, Parker Solar Probe will help us resolve some of the most fundamental mysteries in solar physics. Why is the Sun’s atmosphere, or corona, so incredibly hot? How does that corona give birth to and accelerate the supersonic solar wind?
Although the mission to answer them is new, these questions have a long history.
Here are some of the key discoveries and ideas that led to our current understanding of the corona and the solar wind, leading up to the newest spacecraft in NASA’s Heliophysics fleet.
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