NSN Webinar Series: Parker Solar Probe Explores the Solar Corona
Channel: NASA Night Sky Network
Date: 2020-02-26

Night Sky Network members joined us on February 25, when Adam Szabo from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center shared with us the latest findings from the Parker Solar Probe.

The Parker Solar Probe has completed three orbits around the Sun bringing it already closer to the solar corona than any previous mission.  Though it is still early in the life of this mission, and Parker Solar Probe will get significantly closer to the Sun in a few years, a number of exciting new results have already emerged. Unexpected large magnetic switchbacks have been observed the closer we got to the Sun, there are telling hints that a postulated dust-free zone around the Sun might exist, and very small energetic particle events (not observable from 1 AU) have been detected possibly pointing to an intermittent origin of the solar wind. These and other early results from Parker Solar Probe will be discussed.

For more information, check out the Night Sky Network Outreach Resource page for this webinar.https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/download-view.cfm?Doc_ID=662