In June of last year, we were told by NASA that the 14
year mission of Rover Opportunity might be coming to an end. The rover was
caught in a planet-encircling dust storm. This did not allow light from the sun
to reach the rover’s solar panels, and her battery were becoming drained.
This year NASA tried to get Opportunity up and running,
but their best efforts did not work. NASA sent one more transmission to
Opportunity on 12 February, 2019, but no response was received. The following
day NASA announced that the mission was concluded.
At least the roving part is completed. Years will be spent by scientists and geologists and engineers pouring over the treasure trove of data sent back by Opportunity. All that information will improve the likelihood of another outstanding success in a future mission to Mars – or beyond.
If Opportunity had a middle name it would be Success.
The rover was originally planned as a 90-day mission. Opportunity lasted for 14
years. Her sister rover, Spirit, lasted about half as long, but also well
beyond her planned 90-day mission
Why mentioned them now, nearly 6 months after the conclusion
of the mission? Because they are a model for success, and we should always talk
about success. Plus I’ve been hoping that we would hear from her.
Maybe someday an astronaut will walk up and dust off
her panels, and Opportunity will say, “Welcome to Mars”.
Image is derived from
photos on the NASA Mars Mission website, https://mars.nasa.gov/mer/ . The background
is of Opportunity’s last panorama picture.
More information on the rovers and future missions to
Mars may be found there. MER stands for “Mars Exploration Rover”.
The Indian Space Research Organization
(ISRO) issued a press release today that India successfully launched
their Chandrayaan-2 mission to the Moon.
After reaching its orbit around the Earth, the spacecraft will begin its nearly
60-day journey. The landing on the Moon is scheduled for September 7, 2019.
ISRO chairman, Dr. K. Sivan stated, ““Today is
the beginning of the historical journey of India towards Moon … .” It truly is
as India continues its scientific quest to aid humanity to reach out to the
moon – and beyond.
We congratulate India on their success and
look forward to a soft landing.
And we recall the lines from Robert Heinlein’s
story, “The Green Hills of Earth,”
“Up
leaps a race of Earthmen,
Out, far, and onward yet —“.
This is an update to
my post of 21 July, 2019, “Back to the Moon!” which speaks to the several nations
that are reaching out for the Moon to expand our understand of that body and
the to reach outward beyond that.
The image is
combination of a launch picture from the NBC News website, and the badge of the
ISRO.
Today is the 50th anniversary of mankind’s first landing
on the Moon. We celebrate the men and women of the United States , and truly of
all nations, who worked to make the event happen, and who celebrate it’s reality.
We all look forward to “peace for all mankind”.
Did any other story
of the future written by Robert Heinlein look to the future with such a clear
gaze. The character, D.D. Harriman in the 1940 science fiction story, The Man Who Sold the Moon, faces the reality
that comes to all visionaries. What’s on the moon and how do you get people to
buy it. At the very start of the story Mr. Harriman’s partner says to him, “…
and don’t give me any guff about tourist trade and fabulous lunar jewels. I’ve
had it.”
Today and this
week and this year the moon is being sold; and its being bought. Again this is
by visionaries. But are they right.? Is there profit to made on the moon? Can
whatever resources that lie on its surface or buried in the moon’s crust and
its interior be found and recovered for use?
This is the
question that some forward thinkers are trying to answer.
The Washington
Post’s lead article in the Business section on 17 February, 2019, “The Moon is Suddenly White Hot”, explores
the current activities of nations and individuals/corporations who are sending landers
to the Moon to start scratching the surface to determine if there are “lunar
jewels” that can easily be picked up.
First what are
these jewels? First of all there is the question of whether there is water on
the moon. This is followed by questions related to the value and usability of
minerals and compounds that may be found on the moon and put to use in
industry. What are they? Where are they? Can they be mined (picked up even) and
processed? Will they need to be brought back to earth for processing or can
that be done on the moon, in situ? And is there a profit in it?
We don’t know the answer to these questions yet. That’s why nations and corporations are sinking hundreds and thousands of millions of dollars into making a soft landing on the moon and roving around and finding out the answers to our questions. And at this time we aren’t even talking about getting people, men and women, back onto the lunar surface.
Last year China succeeded
in a soft landing of Chang’e 4 on the far
side of the moon. Their rover is currently “asleep” as the sun is on the
near-side of the moon and the far-side is in truth the dark-side. When the sun
returns to the far-side of the moon, the rover, Yutu, will continue its mission
of investigating the Moon’s magnetic filed, and analysis of the surface dust as
well as a seismometer to study the interior of the moon.
Israel Space Industries
(ISI) with their partners attempted to make a soft landing with their Beersheet
mission, but their lander failed and crashed into the moon’s surface in April..
The lander mission was to study the Moon’s
magnetic field. Initially they said they would try again. But ISI and its
partners have said they will not make a second attempt – just yet. I can only
imagine that they will make another attempt. There are not only riches at
stake, but a good bit of national pride.
India is next up
with their Chandrayaan-2
mission. The Indian Space
Research Organization (ISRO) mission has an orbiter, and a lander
with a rover. The launch is scheduled for Monday, 22 July. The elements of the mission
include the orbiter which will survey the surface of the Moon and the rover which
will study the surface material as well as the make-up of the moon to a depth
of 10 meters and beyond.
The U.S. has long
range plans for landing men and women back on the moon. Russia also has this as
a goal. However, we are likely ten years away from either to make a serious
attempt. Both nations intend to send unmanned missions to the lunar surface
before then.
Mr. Davenport in his
Washington Post article, “The Moon is Suddenly
White Hot”, comments “… the moon is drawing investors and explorers the way
the promise of the American West once did.” A great deal of the effort on the
moon will focus on the Moon’s south polar region where it is thought that there
may be the possibility of extracting weather from the minerals of the Moon.
That would truly
be a “Lunar Jewel”!
Articles reviewed
for this post include:
“The Moon is Suddenly White Hot” in the Washington Post ,February 17, 2019,
print edition; by Christian Davenport
Art work based on “The Moon is Suddenly White Hot” in the Washington Post ,February 17, 2019
and Robert
Heinlein’s book, The Man Who sold the Moon, Signet Edition, 1951.
Its night time
on the far side of the moon. On 11 July the China National Space Administration
(CNSA) announced it had sent commands to its Chang’e-4
probe on the far side of the moon to go into its dormant state. The lander
and the rover will both ‘sleep’ through the 14 day lunar night before they are
sent commands to wake up and continue the mission. The lander and rover require
sunlight to charge their electrical systems and so can only operate during the moon’s
daytime. For the moon to completely rotate on its axis and the sunlight to
return, takes approximately 29 days. The nighttime, when there is no sun, and
the daytime, when the sun’s light reaches the surface of the far side of the
moon, are both approximately 14.5 days. The progress of the lunar days across
the surface of the moon can be easily seen from Earth in the changes phases of
the moon.
However, as
explained in the CNSA 11 July report, “As a result of
the tidal locking effect [between the Earth and the Moon], the moon’s
revolution cycle is the same as its rotation cycle, and the same side always
faces Earth.”
This synchronicity has historically caused the far-side of the moon to remain unseen and a mystery (1). That is until the early days of humanity’s first tentative steps into space. In October 1959 a lunar probe, Luna 3, launched by the Soviet Union, sent back pictures of the far side of the moon. The first humans to see the far side of the moon were the American astronauts in Apollo 8 as they orbited the moon (10 times) in December 1968.
There is still a great deal to discover about the moon, both on the far side and on the side that faces the earth. The return of the sun, and the return of the Chang’e-4 probe to its mission, may enable further discoveries and help humanity to heighten the potential of humanity’s return to the moon – and to go beyond.
The pictures at the top include (upper) a picture from the current Chinese mission on the moon, and two pictures (lower) from Apollo 8.
(1) Lil Wayne’s song “Dark Side of the Moon” – with Nicki Minaj – speaks to the mystery of the far side of the moon. – “On the dark side of the moon I’ll be waiting, I’ll be waiting for you On the dark side of the moon And If you happen to get there before me Leave a message in the dust just for me If I don’t see it I’ll be waiting for you On the dark side of the moon (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)” (Lyrics copied from https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/lilwayne/darksideofthemoon.html .)
The Mole is stuck, but there may not be anything touching
it.
NASA and its partner Germany’s DLR are still trying to
figure if they can get the inSight Mole unstuck. According to an article
published by NASA on 5 July, the team now believes that the Mole has created a
cavity so that there is no soil surrounding it. The Mole needs interaction
(touching) the Martian soil in order to move forward/downwards. Without the
surrounding soil the Mole cannot penetrate further.
The problematic void may be like a cavity formed under a
“bridge” similar to a bridge/arch that can form in bulk carrier cargo vessels.
Due to normal vibration during the voyage or in the unloading process, a bridge
or an arch of the material being transported/unloaded can form across the
material. The bridge/arch will not allow the material above it to fall into the
cavity created by the unloading process. The bridge/arch may have been formed
by the Mole in the Martian soil due to the vibration of the mole mechanism.
These vibrations may have caused the material below the bridge/arch to collapse.
The bridge/arch does not allow the Martian soil which the Mole has already
penetrated to collapse into the cavity.
If the material were able to collapse into the cavity perhaps the Mole
could progress to is mission depth.
The pictures in this article show that NASA has moved the
Mole mechanism from above the mole hole. The hole is indicated by the yellow
arrow. The placement of the feet of the mechanism are shown by orange
semi-circles. The tether that provides energy to the Mole and which allows data
transmission up to the lander is shown by the curved green line. NASA will have
to ensure that when it places the mechanism back over the hole that the tether
is not crimped or broken.
In my original post on the inSight lander (4/4/2019 – Mars inSight
H-P cubed) I asked whether it would be possible to remove the Mole and start at
another location. The answer is no; the Mole cannot be extracted. There is no
way to extract the Mole and then reload it into its mechanism so it could start
again. And even if it did, would it only form another cavity and be in a
similar situation?
Links to two articles on bridging are given below. The key to preventing bridging in earth-bound hoppers is control of material flow based on its cohesion and friction on the sides of the container. On Mars, well, it’s different. In the case were a bridge/arch forms, it is generally necessary to shock/vibrate the material so it will start to flow. In the case of the Mole, a shock might allow bridge arch to collapse filling the cavity with soil and the Mole may be able to move forward again.
Right now, according to current thinking, the Mole is probably
dangling in this cavity. It needs material around it to move. Maybe if there
was a nine-pound hammer on the lander it could give the area close to the hole
a good whack. But that is not the case.
We all hope that the NASA/DLR team will be able to develop a
means for the mole to move forward again.
First of all – it’s good to
be back. I apologize for the lengthy dry spell in my blogs, but it could not be
helped (see blog post “Sorry-but there was an accident”, 6/29). I am glad to be
back. And I am very glad that you are back reading my articles. I hope that my
recovery will soon allow me to get back out to experience the joy of long hikes
in the woods.
Recently, there have been
numerous articles regrading Boaty McBoatface, and I want to salute the vessel,
the drone, the scientists, and the findings.
First the vessel. You may
remember in 2016 there was a public request by a British government bureau, the
British Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), to submit names for a new
scientific vessel. The vessel was a 425 foot (129 meter), $300 million ocean-going
ice breaker and research vessel dedicated to the study of the oceans of the
Antarctic regions.
I need to mention the
importance of the protein provided by the oceans to the world’s population.
According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), in
2014 “ten percent of the world’s population depends on fisheries for
their livelihoods, and 4.3 billion people are reliant on fish for 15 percent of
their animal protein intake.” [1] The
oceans are an important resource and must be studied and protected.
The name for the vessel that the majority of people, those who visited the NERC website, recommended was Boaty McBoatface. I believe the world agreed it was a very funny, but a rather silly, name for a vessel of its size and importance.
The vessel, due to its expense and significance, was eventually named Royal Research Ship (RRS) David Attenborough after the famed broadcaster and natural historian. This name had also scored highly on the NERC website. But what then to do with that great and popular name of Boaty? The scientific community decided to use the name for a new and important drone vehicle. The new drone was planned for exploration of the oceans and specifically to collect data related to the temperature regions/levels of the ocean water surrounding Antarctica.
The new Boaty McBoatface submersible, is a research drone which can be launched and recovered from a larger research vessel. The submersible drone is a Autosub Long Range (ALR). Boaty McBoatface is the first of its class and is designated ALR-1. According to the NERC, the ALR submersibles can be at sea for weeks to months. This length of time and data gathering capability is far longer than research drones that are currently utilized by the NERC. Other autonomous vehicles of the Boaty class are planned for development, construction, and use for research of the Southern Ocean and perhaps others of the world’s seven seas.
ALR Boaty McBoatface, has been in the news recently for its data collection during its first scientific voyage. The data provides information regarding the effect of increasingly stronger winds on the rise of ocean surface water temperatures. This is one of the many feed-back loops related to global warming. According to an article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS) [2], ALR-1 (Boaty), traveled 112 miles on its first voyage. Its path took it through high walled underwater valleys of the Orkney Passage in the depths of the Southern Ocean near Antarctica. The vessel measured temperature, salinity (saltiness), as well as the turbulence at different depths.
The findings of Boaty’s maiden voyage reveal how increasingly stronger winds on the surface of the Southern
Ocean create turbulence deep under the surface. This turbulence results in a
mixing of the warm water at the middle levels with the colder waters from the
depths of the Southern Ocean. This mixing causes the temperature of the waters in
the lower level to warm and move upward through the water column. This can be a
significant factor in rising sea levels. As the warmer water raises the overall
ocean temperature, the water tends to expand due to the warming and thus causes
the sea level to rise. If the deep-water warming contributes to a warming of
the ocean’s surface waters this may increase the rate of evaporation from the
surface into the atmosphere which can contribute to more rain and snow inland
and greater strength to ocean storms.
According to the PNAS article, the significance of the findings of this previously undocumented mixing mechanism of the overturning circulation in the Southern Ocean is a better understanding that the deep-ocean waters are rapidly laundered through intensified near-boundary turbulence and boundary–interior exchange. As the conditions triggering this mechanism are common to other branches of the overturning circulation, the findings highlight a requirement for representing the newly-understood circulation in computer models of the overturning in the Southern Ocean and its effect of rising ocean water temperatures.
Congratulations to Boaty and the entire research team.
The artwork for this blog post is based on Figure 2 of the PNAS article (graph (D) showing the potential vorticity in red and blue and the neutral density of the deep water shown by the black contour lines). The image of the ALR-1 is taken from the internet.
There were people sitting on chairs on a stage. They were all introduced, including Dr. Shep Doeleman, the Director of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) project. There was applause, and then there was silence as everyone in the room sat up to listen closely and to see the picture they all hoped to see. The presentation was succinct, but everyone whether in the room or watching remotely from their offices or homes was waiting for the anticipated announcement. These included scientists, post-docs, students, managers, politician, reporters, and other interested people watching and listening. These other interested people were called the “black-hole enthusiasts”. The work was described, including the development of a Very Long Baseline Interferometer the size of the earth with multiple sites at locations around the globe. Not all of the sites were able to view the target location at the same time, but this supported obtaining good data since as the world turned other sites/telescopes were able to view the target location in space. High levels of collaborative processes were required for the EHT team to be successful.
The target was in galaxy M87, also known as Virgo-Alpha. It is the largest galaxy in the Virgo cluster. At the heart of the galaxy is a super-massive black hole. The international team was seeking to “image”, to create a picture, of the event horizon of the black hole in M87.
The room was quiet. Dr. Doeleman turned toward the screen and pressed the button on his control. For a moment there was total silence followed by the soft clicks of cameras in the room. Then applause. It did not carry on for wave after wave, but it was solid and positive and excited. The applause stopped as everyone in the room leaned forward to see the image. Everyone quieted down as if there were a sound to be heard. Every ear strained; every eye refused to blink.
The image on the screen clearly showed the edge of the event horizon inside of which not even light can escape. Dr. Doeleman stressed that it was the work of numerous nations, their agencies, and their early-career and senior scientists that made possible the development of the pictures. The pictures were created from more than 5-petabytes of information. It was the hard work of all these people that enabled the image seen today to be extracted from the mass of data.
Enthusiasts at home leaned closer to their computer screen and rose on the edge of their chairs. The room was full of virtual attendees who wanted to be part of this announcement of what is truly scientific history.
The picture showed (“north” being up in the picture) a glowing mass of light, the swirl of particles around the heart of galaxy M87 before they cascade across the event horizon into the darkness. The colors in the maelstrom indicated the speed of photon emissions from the accretion flow toward the event horizon. There was a distinct rise in color as the relative speed of the light flowing towards the observing telescopes in 1-mm wavelength increased on the south edge of the ring. And there in the center, the darkness of no light escaping, the back hole. And between the two the crisp edge of the event horizon.
The first-of-its-kind image and the science and math behind it and the cooperation behind it all, leads us to a transformation of our understanding of black holes.
Congratulations to the entire team and all those who supported
and continue to support them.
The image of the black hole is based on the image provided by the NSF-EHT. The map of Virgo is based on a map provided by IAU and Sky and Telescope.
The announcement and press briefing can be viewed at https://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/blackholes/ .
One of the
dedicated science instruments on the Mars InSight lander has had to pause
during its deployment. The instrument is officially known as the Heat Flow and
Physical Properties Probe, which according to the Launch Press Kit is
abbreviated HP3 (pronounced “H-P cubed”). Its mission is to take the temperature
of Mars. It will determine the amount of heat that is escaping from the
interior of the planet. Knowing this heat flow will help us better understand
the evolution of the Martian interior – and the rate at which Mar’s internal
core energy is diminishing.
The instrument includes a probe that is being hammered into the Martian soil to a depth between ten and sixteen feet (3 – 5 meters). But the probe, which is called the “Mole” by NASA, has met significant resistance at a much shallower depth. NASA is trying to determine if the resistance is coming from a rock or a gravel layer. Then they will need to decide how best to get beyond the obstacle. Can it be penetrated, or will another method be necessary?
As a gardener, or I should say as the shovel-man for a gardener, I know what it is to hit a resistive object while digging a hole. For me the resistance is often a stone of small to moderate size or perhaps a root of a nearby tree. Sometimes I can remove the impediment, but sometimes I must shift the location of the hole. Removing the impediment is not an option on Mars. There is no gardener on Mars that can kneel and sweep out the rubble with their gloved hand. *
The Mole is
about 16 inches long and approximately an inch in circumference. The exterior
of the Mole is aluminum. It is attached to a flexible tether that carries
information to the instrument package that is attached to the deck of the
lander. The hammer that provides the driving force is built into the Mole. There
is no outside hammer at the surface level to drive the Mole into the soil. This
means that there is no device, like the claw on the back of a hammer, that can
extract the Mole so it can be placed in a different location.
Going back to my gardening efforts, I have often driven spikes for mats or pegs for garden borders into the ground. I have also driven steel rods to a depth or 18 to 24 inches to support a structure or a wall. In these cases, if I hit a rock or a root that I cannot penetrate I may be able to slightly reorient the item and try to slide past the obstacle. But that may not to be an option for the Mole on Mars. For clarity, I will have to ask NASA.
The Mole’s
internal hammer was designed to enable the tip of the Mole to penetrate objects
up to a certain hardness. This can be understood from the description of the
operation in the mission Launch Press Kit which describes the process. The information
in these documents states that it is expected that the hammer will be dropped
between 5,000 and 20,000 times to penetrate the soil to its planned depth. The
number of hammer blows required depends on the density and hardness of the soil
matrix.
Currently the
Mole has met an object of significant hardness. The hammer not only has to
overcome the hardness of the material it has to penetrate, but it also has to
overcome the friction of the sides of the Mole as it is driven through the obstacle
plus the added friction of the flexible tether as it is dragged down the Mole’s
hole.
NASA will determine the best course of action to allow the Mole to penetrate beyond its current depth. On March 21, the NASA Mission page stated that many ideas are being considered to free the Mole from the obstacle, and that the ideas will require “at least several more weeks of careful analysis.”
Stay tuned.
Perhaps we will be able to slide past the obstacle and reach the appropriate
depth.
“I was here 50 years ago. How much has the Canyon eroded
since I was here last?”
I was standing at the edge of the South Rim of the Grand
Canyon in Arizona. I was talking to a park ranger who looked like she would
appreciate my curiosity – and also looked like she would know the answer.
She answered, “The Canyon erodes about the thickness of a
piece of paper each year.”
“So,” I said, “that’s 50 sheets of paper, a tenth of a ream,
about three-quarters of an inch. I thought I saw the difference.”
And yes, I did see a difference. Not when I peer over the edge and look outwards towards where I can see the Colorado River, but when I look around. There are more people at the Canyon then there had been in November of 1973. The Park is more modern. The trails look better than they had 50 years ago. But the trail down into the Canyon looked just as challenging.
In both my visits to the South Rim, 50 years ago and now, there was snow on the ground. The snow adds to the beauty of the Canyon, as the rocks and trees and shadow are accentuated by the stark white of the snow. But caution is necessary as the trails can be icy and slippery. But with snow or sun caution is always necessary as with the added erosion of the past 50 years its a long way down – plus a bit.
During this visit I would not hike the South Kaibab trail; I
would do my hiking on the rim trail. But in 1973 I wanted to see how far down I
could get before I had to come back up at day’s end. I started early in the
morning with a light pack that I bought the day before in which I had an extra pair
of gloves, some sardines and crackers, and something to drink. I don’t think
they sold water in bottles back then. I was layered against the cold and had on
my sea-duty rain jacket with a hood. It was heavy over my denim jacket, but it would
certainly keep me dry. I also had on my woolen watch cap.
I had my copper bound walking stick and was ready to begin my
descent. It was cold and clear, and I was the only person on the trail. It was
great. The views of the Canyon opening to me were exhilarating. I could look
back millions of years as I passed the rock face of the trail wall. I took time
to think of all the history that had passed in the first few yards, and then I
was well down into the prehistory of the Earth.
It was the uplift of the Colorado Plateau that allowed the marvel of the Grand Canyon to become. About 70 million years ago tectonic forces lifted an area that is now within Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona. As mountains formed and snows and rains fell the nascent Colorado River began its journey off the Colorado Plateau down to the Gulf of California. The River began to cut its way through the uplifted plateau as it sought to reach sea level. As it picked up sediments from its sources it flowed across the uplifted plateau like liquid sandpaper. The rushing River gouged and polished its way down to its present level. As the River grew so did the feeder streams that flowed into it; each cutting its own side canyon. The Canyon sides collapsed as the River cut deeper. This collapse created the width of the current Canyon. Rain and freezing water and trees and wind worked their own patterns of erosion on the Canyon walls, dislodging rocks that would tumble down towards the River below.
And here was another difference. As I hiked down in 1973 I
kept an eye on the weather at the Canyon rim. I could l see clouds gathering
and knew that it was snowing at the top. After reaching Skeleton Point and eating
my sardines and crackers, I knew it was time to turn back in order to get out
of the Canyon before the weather worsened. I was trudging up the last half mile
in snow, leaving my footprints behind me. The wind was blowing the snow, and I
had my hood up. Then I heard something.
It sounded like the thumping of distant thunder. I put my hood back so I could
hear better. There was a rumble and rattle of above me. I looked up and saw a
good size rock rolling down the Canyon side in my direction. I took several
steps backwards and watched as the rock landed on the trail where I had been
standing and bounded further down and out of sight in the direction of the River.
I had witnessed the process of the Canyon. Things change. That
rock is now in a different place and the level of the Canyon floor is now
lower. And I can tell the difference.
Planned obsolescence, a one-way trip, will be the demise
of the Parker Solar Probe. It will burn up. But that’s ok; it’s all part of the
plan. NASA’s probe will collect information on the Sun’s corona. The
information to be gathered and beamed back to Earth is important to our
understanding of solar processes.
The probe will make 24 orbits of the Sun over seven
years. In its final seven orbits the probe will swing out past Venus and then
slingshot back in towards the Sun to descend further through the heat of the
Sun’s corona on each of its final orbits. Eventually it will pass within 3.8
million miles of the Sun’s surface.
The corona is the upper layer of the Sun’s atmosphere, extending millions of miles beyond the visible surface of the Sun, the photosphere. Photons released by nuclear fusion deep in the interior of the Sun are emitted by the photosphere, giving light. The corona lies millions of miles above this but is curiously hotter than the Sun’s surface. Solar winds generated in the polar and equatorial regions of the Sun lash out from the corona and send massive amounts of electrically charged particles streaming away from the Sun. These winds and other solar activities are the solar weather which reaches across the 93 million miles between the Earth and the Sun and can cause havoc on Earth. The particles of the solar wind travel at speeds over one million miles per hour and can cover the distance between the Sun and the Earth in about ten days. This is much slower than the light from the Sun which can cover that distance in about eight minutes.
The most visible aspect of the solar winds is the generation of aurora, curtains of glowing colors of light, that appear near the Earth’s magnetic poles. In the northern hemisphere, these displays are often called Northern Lights. They shimmer in the Earth’s upper atmosphere when the particles of the solar wind hit the lines of the Earth’s magnetic field. The strongest of these solar winds can also destroy the electronic capability of satellites. The winds can wipe out power grids on the Earth’s surface plunging cities into blackouts which can last for days. When the bursts of energy that generate the solar winds are detected, warnings can be made so that delicate equipment can be turned off or otherwise protected. Life on Earth is protected from the charged particles of the solar wind by the Earth’s own magnetic field. But astronauts above the Earth, or perhaps on a mission to Mars, or living on the moon, are not protected from the massive stream of charged particles.
The Parker Solar Probe is helping us to develop a deeper understanding of the fundamental processes of the Sun. By studying the data received from the probe, we will be able to better forecast solar weather and protect life and property. This knowledge will also provide important information regarding how to protect astronauts when we go out to build colonies off Earth.
Recently the probe reached a milestone on it mission; it began its second orbit of the sun. Important data has already been sent by the probe and received by NASA scientists. On the second orbit, protected by its 4.5 inch carbon-composite solar shield, the probe will pass within 15 million miles of the Sun’s surface. It will go deeper. With each orbit it will transmit more data on the solar wind, and it will continue to find information related to solar eruptions which accelerate particles dangerous speeds, and will plumb the mystery of why the corona is several 100’s of time hotter than the surface of the Sun. The probe will descend deeper and deeper into the heat to discover the depths of the plasma of the Sun’s corona.
These are the golden apples of the Sun, to gain knowledge, to know, to understand.