Parker Probe's path through solar blast yields unparalleled space weather insights

Artist’s concept of the Parker Solar Probe spacecraft approaching the sun. Launching in 2018, Parker Solar Probe will provide new data on solar activity and make critical contributions to our ability to forecast major space-weather events that impact life on Earth. Credit: NASA

Now, Parker has one more feather to add to its sun-kissed cap: It's the first spacecraft ever to fly through a powerful solar explosion near the sun.These fierce eruptions can expel magnetic fields and sometimes billions of tons of plasma at speeds ranging from 60 to 1,900 miles per second.

A composite of images collected by Parker Solar Probe’s Wide-field Imager for Solar Probe instrument captures the moment the spacecraft passed through a coronal mass ejection on Sept. 5, 2022. The event becomes visible at 0:14 seconds. The sun, depicted on the left, comes closest on Sept. 6, when Parker reached its 13th perihelion. The sound in the background is magnetic field data converted into audio.

"This is the closest to the sun we've ever observed a CME," said Nour Raouafi, the Parker Solar Probe project scientist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, which built the spacecraft within NASA's timeline and budget, and currently manages and operates the mission."We've never seen an event of this magnitude at this distance."

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