Solar Wind Cars

Parker Solar Probe

Parker Solar Probe is NASA's spacecraft launched in 2018 with a mission to "touch" the Sun and make observations about the corona and solar wind. It successfully reached it's destination - the Sun's atmosphere on 28th of April 2021. It orbits within 4 million miles (6.5 million km) from our Sun's surface and sends us data about the solar wind. The temperatures at this level is around 1500 °F (800 °C). To deal with these extreme conditions, Parker Solar Probe uses a 11.5 cm thick shield made of composite material carbon-carbon and a reflective coat of white ceramic paint. This enables room-like temperature behind the shield.

Sun's atmosphere

Unlike Earth, our Sun doesn't have a solid surface. It's giant ball of hot plasma that's held together by its own gravity. Solar material flows out from the surface, but most of it is bound by the Sun's gravity and magnetic field. This forms the Sun's atmosphere, which reaches around 8.1 million miles (13 millions km) from the surface. Parker Solar Probe is the first spacecraft which reached the Sun's atmosphere and has since made many discoveries and provides us with data about phenomena which can't be studied from afar.

Solar Wind

Some of the solar material is pushed by rising heat and pressure so strong that it leaves the Sun's atmosphere (this point is called the Alfvén critical surface) and continues as the solar wind. The wind can accelerate up to millions of miles per hour. The speed depends on the region of it's origin. Sometimes the wind can get so fast it causes a geomagnetic storm, which can can disrupt our satellites. The most extreme storms can cause blackouts of grid systems and widespread voltage control problems.

Sun's corona

The corona is the outermost layer of Sun's atmosphere and can only be seen from the Earth during solar eclipse. The corona is around 300 times hotter than the photosphere, which typically has around 5500 °C. Corona can reach astonishing 550 000 °C (almost 1 million °F). It's still a mystery why it's much hotter further away from the Sun than on it's surface. One of the possible explanations can be the explosions of packets of hot material from the Sun.