Gadgetory

nASA has blasted off the parka space probe and it's zooming on its way towards the Sun what will we learn when we get there how is it gonna survive the heat and what does this all have to do with aurora borealis I'm Claire reilly welcome to watch this space good evening from the CNET studios in sydney i'm claire riley and this is watch this space the show that tells you everything on earth you need to know about what's happening in space and tonight we're getting up close and personal with Parker the little probe that's going to touch the Sun the Parker solar probe is named after Eugene Parker the astrophysicist who first developed the theory of the existence of solar wind above the size of a small car the probe is the first human-made object that will ever pass through the sun's atmosphere the corona latin for the word crown the corona wraps around the Sun like a crown of burning hot plasma kind of like that seen in Game of Thrones but in space it's 300 times hotter than the surface of the Sun and extends millions of miles above the surface it holds the key to some of the solar system's biggest secrets like solar wind and Aurora here on earth thanks cliff she's right just like your friend at every summer barbecue you've ever been to Parker is heading straight for the corona the space probe blasted off from Florida in the early morning of August 12 in front of Eugene Parker himself and this lady who was super psyched to be there it's set to shoot past Venus getting a gravity assist from our planetary neighbor on the way to make sure it gets nice and close to the Sun in November Parker will have its first solar flyby getting within 15 million miles of the star but it won't stop there it's going to pass by the Sun 24 times during its seven-year mission we have a few more boost from Venus just for good measure eventually getting within 3.8 million miles of the star that's about 4% of the distance between the Sun and Earth when it does it will be traveling at four hundred and thirty thousand miles per hour setting the record for the fastest ever object created by humankind sorry Jimmy you just lost the track mate so what are we gonna learn when Parker starts fraternizing with the Sun well it's all about solar wind and we're not talking about the kind of wind you get here on earth solar-wind describes the charged particles that are emitted from the Sun's corona and blasted out into the solar system on earth the charged particles that make up solar wind zoom past us at a million miles an hour quite literally but we managed to dodge most of the damage thanks to the Earth's magnetic field without that field the solar wind would tear through our atmosphere and strip away things like our ozone layer which protects us from ultraviolet radiation unless of course you live in Australia where ozone depletion means you can literally get sunburned 365 days a year but we don't miss all the effects of solar radiation down here on earth the charged particles that do make it through our atmosphere a responsible for natural phenomena like aurora borealis so next time you're chowing down on a nice meal of steamed hams and watching the Northern Lights you can thank solar wind for that according to NASA the primary goals of the Parker mission are to trace how energy and heat moved through the solar corona and to explore what accelerates solar wind and you can't do that from down here on earth that's why NASA needs to go partial smashmouth and start walking near the Sun which means going right through that corona it's gonna get toasty in there we're talking 2500 degrees Fahrenheit or almost 1,400 degrees Celsius now Parker is packed with four main instruments that will gather data in the corona studying magnetic and electric fields measuring particles and imaging the solar wind itself but these space instruments are going to need protection when they start passing through that blazing plasma crown for that nASA has designed a 4.5 inch thick thermal protection system made from everyone's favorite material carbon well more accurately a quote carbon-carbon composite sandwiching a lightweight carbon foam core that's a lot of carbon it's also been sprayed with a special white coating to help reflect the sun's energy thanks to that design nASA says the front of the shield will be able to withstand up to 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit while the back of the shield will be able to handle a more temperate 650 degrees so while a trip to the Sun is a straight-up 10 out of 10 on the Galactic death scale for us humans Parker is going to be a-ok which brings us to the space weather over to you Claire that's right Claire NASA says that this mission should help researchers better forecast space weather events which can do everything from knocking out radio communications to harming astronauts in orbit and even affecting the power grid which leads us to our space weather forecast for today Cloudy with a Chance of plasma it's going to be a long and intensely hot journey for the parka Solar Probe but from all of us here at CNN we wish that little guy as Sonny expedition safe travels Parker and take it easy on the Coronas that's it for this week's edition I've watched this space if you've enjoyed our broadcast then please hit the like button on your remote and remember to subscribe to get further space news as it happens I'm Claire Riley for CNET goodnight and Godspeed corona are we doing are we sponsored by them now okay alright Oh borealis did somebody say that they were getting steamed hams for lunch because I would I would be in on that Linda's a vegetarian what would she know I want I want pure steamed hands you make sure steamed the park of Solar Probe is named after Peter Parker the first man to theorize the existence of the spidey-sense we change that did we okay