An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics

A NASA space mission launched on August 12, 2018 to study the outer corona of the Sun at very close distances. Parker Solar Probe is the first space mission to penetrate into solar corona as close as about 10 solar radii. It will approach the Sun to this distance 25 times. Approaching the Sun to such distances is a big technological challenge.

The main goals of the mission are to answer these questions: Why is the solar corona so hotter than the solar surface? How is the solar wind accelerated? How are the energetic particles produced and transported?

See also: Named after the physicist Eugene Newman Parker (1927-), who proposed the existence of the solar wind and did pioneering work for its interpretation.