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Death-defying NASA mission will make humanity’s closest approach to the Sun

The Parker Solar Probe will dive into the sizzling solar corona to explore its mysteries.
  1. Alexandra Witze
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Step aside, Icarus: NASA has made a spacecraft that can fly through the Sun’s atmosphere without melting.

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Nature 559, 452-453 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-05741-6

Updates & Corrections

  • Correction 18 July 2018: The original text said that the mission’s orbital period is 88 days; this is the period for the final three perihelions only.

References

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  3. Kasper, J. C. et al. Astrophys. J. 849, 126 (2017).

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