NASA Set To Reveal Findings From Its Parker Solar Probe Today

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is all set to announce the first results from the Parker Solar Probe mission, the agency's revolutionary mission to "touch" the Sun, on Wednesday. The agency's teleconference audio will stream live on December 4th, 1:30 PM EST on NASA's website. It will also publish its findings 30 minutes before the stream in Nature. Those who can't tune in can watch the special NASA Science Live episode tackling the probe's results, which will air on NASA TV, the agency's Facebook page, YouTube channel, and Periscope at 3 PM. Finally, NASA will host a Reddit AMA about Parker's findings on December 5th, starting at 2 PM.

Launched in August 2018, Parker Solar Probe is on for a seven-year mission that is targeting the constant stream of highly charged plasma leaving the sun, called the solar wind, and the star's outer atmosphere called the corona. The spacecraft primarily gathers data while within about 23 million miles (37 million kilometres) of our star.

Below are the four experiments that Parker Solar Probe is carrying out in space:

• Fields Experiment, which studies electric and magnetic fields.
• Integrated Science Investigation of the Sun, which measures high-energy charged particles in the solar wind and corona.
• Wide-Field Imager for Solar Probe, which images the solar wind and other structures.
• Solar Wind Electrons Alphas and Protons Investigation, which measures different types of particles in the solar wind.

Also Read: Using Hubble Space Telescope, Researchers Observe Most Powerful Gamma-Ray Burst

It is worth mentioning here that Parker Solar Probe has also already made its third flyby of the sun and the spacecraft's next closest approach is on January 29, 2020.

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