Updated December 23, 2024 at 10:38 AM ET
Part 1 of the TED Radio Hour episode "Making Sense of the Sun"
On Dec. 24, NASA's Parker Solar Probe will get closer to the sun than any human-made object ever has before. The spacecraft is the size of a small car, and it has been orbiting the sun for the past six years. In 2021, it became the first spacecraft to enter the sun's upper atmosphere — known as the corona — about 6.5 million miles from the sun's surface, according to NASA. Every three months, it completes a full revolution around the sun, gradually getting closer to the sun. This year, on Christmas Eve, it is expected to get within approximately 3.9 million miles from the sun's surface while traveling about 430,000 miles an hour.
NPR's Manoush Zomorodi interviewed project scientist Nour Rawafi, an astrophysicist based at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.
"We are getting close and personal with a star," Rawafi told Zomorodi. "Sometimes it's like a dream. But you are living it."
How the probe withstands the high temperatures of the sun
The Parker Solar Probe's heat shield was tested to withstand temperatures of up to 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit, according to NASA.
"It took us about five to six years to come up with the right material," said Rawafi.
The heat shield surrounding the probe reflects light, absorbs heat and is cooled by a network of water-filled pipes.
The network of tiny pipes goes from the backs of the solar panels all the way up to radiators, forming a closed circuit. Water is constantly flowing within this network, extracting heat from the solar panels and releasing it through the radiators.
"We experimented with I don't know how many liquids. But the best liquid that gives what we need is simply water — that's all," Rawafi explained on the TED Radio Hour.
Once the Parker Solar Probe gets close to the sun, Rawafi's team won't be able to communicate with it.
"It has to be 100% autonomous. If it runs into any issue, it has to deal with it on its own," Rawafi said.
The Parker Solar Probe has been collecting a variety of data about the sun
The probe is surrounded by instruments that measure everything from magnetic fields to temperatures, velocities and energetic particles flying at the speed of light. Since its launch in 2018, the Parker Solar Probe has been sending data back to scientists every three months.
"So we are like spoiled kids in a way. Whenever we get a new load of data, we jump on it," said Rawafi. "The data we are getting from it … it's so loaded with knowledge, with new things that we need to investigate, that it is going to take us decades from now to look into it."
The goal? To predict solar storms and uncover the mysteries of the sun
Rawafi hopes this data can provide insight into some of the sun's mysteries, like how to mitigate the impact of geomagnetic solar storms.
Solar storms can disrupt life on Earth, knocking out important communication and GPS satellites.
For Rawafi, this Parker Solar Probe mission is historic, a chance to learn more about the star that supports life on this planet.
"Without the sun, there would be no life on Earth, there would be no solar system, there would be no Earth," said Rawafi. "We owe our existence to the sun."
This segment of the TED Radio Hour was produced by Katie Monteleone and edited by Sanaz Meshkinpour. The digital story was written by Harsha Nahata and edited by Katie Monteleone and Sanaz Meshkinpour. You can follow us on Facebook and email us at TEDRadioHour@npr.org.
Web resources
Related TED talk: The marvels and mysteries revealed by the James Webb Space Telescope
Related TED talk: Lessons from a solar storm chaser
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