Guess what's NASA's new year goal? To 'touch' Sun with Parker Solar Probe
While most of the world is still figuring resolutions for 2018, American space agency NASA has already got its goal. Any guesses? It's to 'touch' Sun, obviously!
While most of the world is still figuring resolutions for 2018, American space agency NASA has already got its goal. Any guesses? It's to 'touch' Sun, obviously!
Well, in simpler terms, NASA will launch its Parker Solar Probe in an attempt to explore the outer atmosphere of our Sun.
According to an IANS report, the probe will use Venus' gravity during seven flybys over nearly seven years to gradually bring its orbit closer to the Sun.
The primary science goals for the mission are to trace how energy and heat move through the solar corona and to explore what accelerates the solar wind as well as solar energetic particles.
In 2018, NASA will also add to its existing robotic fleet at the Red Planet with the InSight Mars lander designed to study the interior and subsurface of the planet.
The US space agency's first asteroid sample return mission, OSIRIS-REx, is scheduled to arrive at the near-Earth asteroid Bennu in August 2018, and will return a sample for study in 2023.