The solar probe passed through the plasma on September 5, 2022, but scientists have only now published the data and analysis.
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe became the first spacecraft to pass through a coronal explosion and successfully recorded the entire event, LiveScience reports.
The spacecraft passed through a massive solar flare on September 5, 2022, managed to break through the plasma to the other side, and the results observed then have now been studied and published in The Astrophysical Journal.
This is the closest coronal exposure study to date. We’ve never seen an event of this magnitude so close – Noor Rauafi, a scientist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland and a scientist on the Parker Solar Probe project, said in a statement.
Coronal explosions are eruptions that travel at several million kilometers per hour and collect particles from the solar wind to form a wave.
The Parker Solar Probe was launched towards the Sun in August 2018. It is shielded from heat and radiation, so it was able to fly at a distance of 9.2 million kilometers from the Sun when it observed the coronal explosion. A better understanding of coronal explosions is important for protecting our planet from geomagnetic storms.
