Parker Solar Probe

The Parker Solar Probe is a NASA space probe launched in 2018 with the mission of making observations of the outer corona of the Sun. It will approach to within 9.86 solar radii from the center of the Sun, and by 2025 will travel, at closest approach, as fast as 690,000 km/h, or 0.064% the speed of light. The project was announced in the fiscal 2009 budget year. The cost of the project is US$1.5 billion. Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory designed and built the spacecraft, which was launched on 12 August 2018. It became the first NASA spacecraft named after a living person, honoring nonagenarian physicist Eugene Newman Parker, professor emeritus at the University of Chicago. A memory card containing the names of over 1.1 million people was mounted on a plaque and installed below the spacecraft's high-gain antenna on 18 May 2018. The card also contains photos of Parker and a copy of his 1958 scientific paper predicting important aspects of solar physics.

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NASA's Parker Solar Probe is solving long-standing mysteries about the sun. Here's what we've learned so far.

NASA's Parker Solar Probe to fly by Venus today before historic sun encounter

Parker Solar Probe completes 21st close approach to the sun

Parker Solar Probe lines up for final Venus flyby

NASA's Parker Solar Probe finds fresh clues to decades-old mystery surrounding the sun

The sun's corona is weirdly hot, and Parker Solar Probe rules out one explanation

The corona is weirdly hot: Parker Solar Probe rules out one explanation

NASA's Parker Solar Probe makes 1st-of-its-kind observation within a coronal mass ejection

NASA's Parker Solar Probe smashes record for fastest human-made object

'Lightning' on Venus may not be lightning at all, Parker Solar Probe finds

NASA's Parker Solar Probe flies through major coronal mass ejection — and survives to tell the tale

Parker Solar Probe and Solar Orbiter team up to tackle 65-year-old sun mystery

NASA's Parker Solar Probe to make closest flyby of Venus on Aug. 21

This Week @NASA: Webb Finds Black Hole in Early Universe, Mars Helicopter, Parker Solar Probe

Voyage to the Sun: NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Completes 16th Close Approach

Parker Solar Probe Finds Magnetic Energy Near Sun’s Surface Enables Solar Wind To Reach Gravity-Defying Speeds

NASA's Parker Solar Probe starts summer with 16th swoop by the sun

Parker Solar Probe Makes a Surprising Discovery About the Source of the Geminid Meteor Shower

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Sheds Light on Unusual, Violent Origin of Geminid Meteor Shower

Parker Solar Probe Identifies Mechanism Driving Fast Solar Wind