(mysterious music)
- [Narrator] The sun
has sustained the earth,
and fascinated humans since
the beginning of time.
And as our understanding of physics,
and our space technology have advanced,
so too, have scientists tried
to tackle more questions
about the sun, and its
effects on the earth.
On baffling matter has to
do with the temperature
just outside the sun's surface.
- It's a long standing mystery
in plasma astrophysics,
at how you create a very hot corona,
a millions of degree
corona, from a cool star.
- [Narrator] Many of us
know that the sun's corona,
its atmosphere, is extremely hot.
But maybe what's not so commonly known
is that the actual surface of the sun
is surprisingly much
cooler than the corona.
- [Stuart] To really understand
the plasma physics behind this,
we have to go there directly,
and make measurements,
and that's the mission of Solar Probe.
- [Narrator] Launched in 2018,
NASAs Parker Solar Probe spacecraft
has now traveled closer to the sun
than any other mission in history,
actually penetrating the sun's atmosphere,
to investigate its highly
charged magnetic field.
- [Stuart] Here at Berkeley,
we have the lead responsibility
for one of the instrument suits,
and we have a major role
in one of the other
instrument suits as well.
We designed, we built, and we operate
the bulk of the instrumentation
on the spacecraft.
- [Narrator] Those instruments
are measuring the properties
of the solar wind, that rush
of electrified particles
the magnetic field continually
pushes out towards the earth.
Understanding the solar wind
could inform the key question
of the hot corona, and
also help us prepare
for major disruptions the wind can cause
to our spacecraft,
satellite communications,
and the safety of our astronauts.
Named after Eugene Parker,
who developed the solar wind theory,
the probe has already sent back
many interesting measurements.
- [Stuart] The first three
encounters of Solar Probe
that we've had so far
has been spectacular.
We can see the magnetic
structure of the corona,
which is an important
thing, it tells us where
the solar wind is emerging from.
We see impulsive activity,
large, what we call jets,
or switchbacks, which we think are related
to the origin of the solar wind.
- [Narrator] The probe
also captured information
about solar dust, tiny remnants
of disintegrated comets or asteroids.
- [Stuart] We're able
to measure dust impacts
on the spacecraft, and we're surprised
at the kind of ferocity
of the dust environment
in the inner heliosphere.
- [Narrator] Built with
the most sophisticated
heat protecting shields
of any other spacecraft,
the probe stays cool with a
novel water circulation system
that captures and expels
the heat into space.
It's also the fastest
spacecraft in history.
At 430,000 miles per hour,
it could take you from New York to Tokyo
in less than a minute.
But it's clear that the
best thing about the mission
is all the new knowledge it's generating.
- We've been working
essentially around the clock,
for a decade on this thing.
And so to see this data,
it's just a pleasure.
I mean the data is so spectacular.
It's a big case of delayed gratification,
but it's really terrific stuff.
I think we're on the cusp
of being able to answer
the question of what heats the solar wind.
