A making of Parker Solar Probe as it circles around the sun—closer to a star than any spacecraft has actually ever ventured. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben
During Parker Solar Probe’s seventh visit the Sun, culminating in its closest solar technique, or perihelion, on January 17, 2021, celestial geometry postured an unique chance. The setup of this specific orbit put Parker Solar Probe on the exact same side of the Sun as Earth — indicating that Earth-bound observatories might observe the Sun and its profusion of solar wind from the exact same point of view as Parker’s. This begins the heels of a comparable observation project in the winter season of 2020.
“Along with the global science community, the Parker Solar Probe team can’t wait to see this new data,” stated Nour Raouafi, the Parker Solar Probe task researcher from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. “Combining it with contributions from observatories around the globe will help us to put Parker observations in a broader context and build a complete picture of the phenomena observed in the solar atmosphere.”
Read on for pictures from a couple of objectives that observed the Sun and the planetary system throughout Parker Solar Probe’s seventh solar encounter.
These images were recorded by the X-ray Telescope, or XRT, aboard the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s and NASA’s Hinode spacecraft. XRT enjoys the Sun in X-rays, a high-energy kind of light that exposes the incredibly hot product in the Sun’s environment, the corona. These images from XRT were recorded on Jan. 17, when Parker Solar Probe was closest to the Sun. Scientists can utilize XRT’s images with Parker Solar Probe’s direct measurements of the environment around the Sun to much better comprehend how the Sun’s corona might drive modifications in the area environment further away from the Sun.
Solar Dynamics Observatory
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, keeps a consistent eye on the Sun from its viewpoint in orbit around Earth. SDO catches pictures of the Sun in severe ultraviolet light — a kind of light that is undetectable to our eyes — and noticeable light, along with magnetic maps of the Sun. SDO’s information can assist researchers comprehend the connection in between conditions on the Sun and what is determined in the solar wind by spacecraft like Parker Solar Probe.
These images were recorded in 211 angstroms, a wavelength of severe ultraviolet light produced by product at around 3 million degrees Fahrenheit. This wavelength highlights both active areas — viewed as intense areas in the image — and coronal holes, locations of open electromagnetic field on the Sun from which high-seed solar wind can hurry out into area. Coronal holes look like dark locations in this wavelength of light.
IRIS
NASA’s Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, or IRIS, catches pictures of the lower areas of the Sun’s environment in ultraviolet light, in addition to spectra that break down just how much light shows up throughout various wavelengths. These images, recorded on Jan. 17, reveal an active area on the Sun, a location of extreme and intricate electromagnetic fields that is vulnerable to surges of light and solar product. This specific active area was targeted for IRIS observations based upon design forecasts that recommended that electromagnetic field lines from this area might be ones Parker Solar Probe would cross and determine throughout its solar encounter.
The images cycle through various wavelengths of light — representing views of various heights above the solar surface area — to expose functions in numerous areas of the Sun’s structure. This images reveals functions from the solar surface area to a couple of thousand miles above at the top of the chromosphere, an area of the Sun’s environment that user interfaces with the prolonged solar environment beyond.
Credit: Global Oscillation Network Group/National Solar Observatory/AURA/NSF
The National Science Foundation’s Global Oscillation Network Group, or GONG, is a network of solar imagers dispersed around the world. They use the Zeeman impact — how light divides into several wavelengths under the impact of an electromagnetic field — to develop magnetic maps of the solar surface area. This video reveals GONG’s magnetic maps, upgraded per hour, from January 12-23, 2021. The black locations represent locations where the electromagnetic field is pointing in towards the Sun’s surface area, and white locations are where the electromagnetic field is mentioning into area.
As the solar wind streams out of the Sun, it brings the solar electromagnetic field with it. But recognizing specifically which areas on the Sun are the source for solar wind determined by spacecraft like Parker Solar Probe is a tough job for a number of factors: The Sun turns, solar wind leaves the Sun at differing speeds, and strong electromagnetic fields near the Sun can alter the solar wind’s course as it drains.
The Parker Solar Probe group utilizes GONG’s magnetic maps, in addition to information from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, to make forecasts of which areas on the Sun are sending product and electromagnetic field lines towards the spacecraft. Drawing these connections in between the Sun itself and the solar wind that Parker Solar Probe is determining straight can assist researchers trace how conditions on the Sun propagate out into area.
THEMIS
A trio of NASA’s THEMIS spacecraft — brief for Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions throughout Substorms — orbit Earth to determine particles and electrical and electromagnetic fields in near-Earth area. THEMIS’ information assists scientists untangle the complex aspects that govern the reaction of near-Earth area to characteristics in Earth’s electromagnetic field, modifications in the Sun’s continuously outflowing solar wind, and activity on the Sun.
These measurements were taken by THEMIS-E, among the spacecraft in orbit around Earth, on Jan. 20. It takes about 2 to 3 days for solar wind to cross the 10s of countless miles from the Sun to Earth, so the solar wind conditions observed by Parker Solar Probe throughout its close solar technique on Jan. 17 did not start to affect near-Earth area till about Jan. 19-20.
Credits: NASA/THEMIS
THEMIS-E started the day taking a trip through the Van Allen radiation belts — concentric bands of charged particles embedded in Earth’s electromagnetic field — as it approached Earth. THEMIS-E then took a trip back outside through the radiation belts. Both transits through the radiation belts are shown in the locations of extreme coloring in the lower left part of the plot at the start of the day.
Mid-early morning, THEMIS-E left Earth’s electromagnetic field and went into the magnetosheath — the area simply outside the outermost Sun-dealing with border of Earth’s electromagnetic field where solar wind accumulate as it hits Earth’s electromagnetic field. Throughout the day, gusts in the solar wind momentarily pressed the borders of the magnetosphere Earthward, significance that THEMIS-E consistently left and returned to the magnetosheath. For about 15 hours — till its orbit brought it back into the magnetosphere late in the day — THEMIS-E at the same time observed the undisturbed solar wind outside the magnetosheath and piled-up solar wind in the magnetosheath. The undisturbed solar wind observed by THEMIS-E was a bit slower than typical, however likewise about two times as thick as common solar wind — observations likewise verified by NASA’s Advanced Composition Explorer and Wind spacecraft, which orbit more upstream in between the Sun and Earth.
