This blog was hurriedly assembled to mark the launch of the historic Parker Solar Probe
Delayed lift-off ...
24 hours later
Today saw the re-scheduled* launch of the Parker Solar Probe, as it now bravely heads for the sun on a one - way mission to gather new information about our mighty star .
It is hoped that a working knowledge of the mysterious 'solar wind' can be gained - not least an understanding of why the temperature four million miles away is approximately 200 times hotter than the surface temperature of the sun itself (a mere 5700 degrees C).
The mission is a vindication of scientist Eugene Parker, who first proposed the idea of the solar wind many decades ago (in the 1950s), but was refuted - until 1962, when the Mariner 2 craft reported a strong solar wind on its journey to Venus.
The solar wind extends beyond the end of our solar system , and was only recently breached by Voyager 1, which became the first human-built craft to enter interstellar space in 2012...
The Parker Solar Probe will be the closest ever human - made object to the sun, dwarfing the previous record of approx 28 million miles.
Four million miles may seem like a considerable distance from the heat of the sun, but don't forget that the nearest planet, Mercury, is an average of 35 million miles away , and still gets daytime surface temperatures of 450 degrees celsius...
The Parker Solar Probe will become the fastest moving human built object ever, when it reaches a blistering (literally) 430,000 miles an hour at its fastest and closest approach to Sol in December 2024 , aided by a gravity 'slingshot' from Venus.
Part of its payload is a list of over one million names of people who applied to 'travel' - being superstitious, I thought it smacked of 'solar sacrifice', so my name is only on a boarding pass on the Insight craft...
In Other News...
A meteorite that dates from a mere 2.5 million years after the ' Big Bang' has potentially changed the understanding of the formation of volcanic rock throughout the galaxy.
NASA has chosen the nine astronauts who will fly the next crewed missions to launch to the I.S.S. beginning next year. It feels like the next logical step, as all eyes look to the stars - well, Mars. Personally, I think it more likely that we are practicing for the eventual mining of asteroids, an untapped market worth an estimated three trillion dollars.; but then, I'm just an old cynic...
Staying with NASA, plans are afoot to send a mission to an exoplanet by way of marking the hundredth anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, which landed the first humans on the moon.
The exoplanet candidate for this mission is part of the Alpha Centauri system, a mere four light years from here.
Hopefully, by the anniversary date of 2069, the small technical hitches (speed of light travel, deceleration, etc) will have been eradicated. The idea was mooted at a conference by Anthony Freeman of JPL, who then said the plans were " Nebulous" (laughter emoji)
In other news, a brand new radio telescope in British Columbia, Canada has detected an FRB (180725A ) emanating from some 3 billion light years away. The amount of energy required to send a radio signal over such a distance is phenomenal; one source equated it with moving a load weighing a million tons - okay, that means it's probably a couple of black holes colliding, or a pulsar, but even so...
What also makes this FRB so unique is that it has a low frequency of 580 mhz, rather than the standard 700 mhz. Exactly what this implies, I'm not sure, but I hope that the aliens using the signal as a carrier beam are friendly...
On this note, I repair to my safe room, and take my medications...
Until next time, I hope all is well in your corner of the multi-verse !
* These things happen - flocks of birds, meteors, Godzilla, that sort of thing
Delayed lift-off ...
24 hours later
 |
| The probe finally launches aboard Delta IV Heavy |
It is hoped that a working knowledge of the mysterious 'solar wind' can be gained - not least an understanding of why the temperature four million miles away is approximately 200 times hotter than the surface temperature of the sun itself (a mere 5700 degrees C).
The mission is a vindication of scientist Eugene Parker, who first proposed the idea of the solar wind many decades ago (in the 1950s), but was refuted - until 1962, when the Mariner 2 craft reported a strong solar wind on its journey to Venus.
The solar wind extends beyond the end of our solar system , and was only recently breached by Voyager 1, which became the first human-built craft to enter interstellar space in 2012...
The Parker Solar Probe will be the closest ever human - made object to the sun, dwarfing the previous record of approx 28 million miles.
Four million miles may seem like a considerable distance from the heat of the sun, but don't forget that the nearest planet, Mercury, is an average of 35 million miles away , and still gets daytime surface temperatures of 450 degrees celsius...
The Parker Solar Probe will become the fastest moving human built object ever, when it reaches a blistering (literally) 430,000 miles an hour at its fastest and closest approach to Sol in December 2024 , aided by a gravity 'slingshot' from Venus.
Part of its payload is a list of over one million names of people who applied to 'travel' - being superstitious, I thought it smacked of 'solar sacrifice', so my name is only on a boarding pass on the Insight craft...
 |
| Artist impression of the Parker Solar Probe image: NASA |
A meteorite that dates from a mere 2.5 million years after the ' Big Bang' has potentially changed the understanding of the formation of volcanic rock throughout the galaxy.
NASA has chosen the nine astronauts who will fly the next crewed missions to launch to the I.S.S. beginning next year. It feels like the next logical step, as all eyes look to the stars - well, Mars. Personally, I think it more likely that we are practicing for the eventual mining of asteroids, an untapped market worth an estimated three trillion dollars.; but then, I'm just an old cynic...
Staying with NASA, plans are afoot to send a mission to an exoplanet by way of marking the hundredth anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, which landed the first humans on the moon.
The exoplanet candidate for this mission is part of the Alpha Centauri system, a mere four light years from here.
Hopefully, by the anniversary date of 2069, the small technical hitches (speed of light travel, deceleration, etc) will have been eradicated. The idea was mooted at a conference by Anthony Freeman of JPL, who then said the plans were " Nebulous" (laughter emoji)
 |
| Andre Renard / Dunlap Institute, CHIME |
In other news, a brand new radio telescope in British Columbia, Canada has detected an FRB (180725A ) emanating from some 3 billion light years away. The amount of energy required to send a radio signal over such a distance is phenomenal; one source equated it with moving a load weighing a million tons - okay, that means it's probably a couple of black holes colliding, or a pulsar, but even so...
What also makes this FRB so unique is that it has a low frequency of 580 mhz, rather than the standard 700 mhz. Exactly what this implies, I'm not sure, but I hope that the aliens using the signal as a carrier beam are friendly...
On this note, I repair to my safe room, and take my medications...
Until next time, I hope all is well in your corner of the multi-verse !
* These things happen - flocks of birds, meteors, Godzilla, that sort of thing
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