The Parker Solar Probe launched on Sunday NASA/Bill Ingalls
NASA鈥檚 Parker Solar Probe is on its way to meet the sun. The spacecraft, which is intended to enter and study the Sun鈥檚 scorching atmosphere, launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida on Sunday at 3:31 am local time, after a failed attempt on the previous day.
The probe is equipped with a carbon heat shield to protect it from the sun鈥檚 radiation, which is about 500 times more intense than it is on Earth. It will fly through the sun’s tenuous atmosphere, the corona, whose temperature can reach…
Article amended on 20 August 2018
We corrected the main purpose of the heat shield
