Parker Solar Probe
- LAUNCH- Aug. 12, 2018
- Launch Vehicle- Delta IV-Heavy with Upper Stage
- NASA’s Parker Solar Probe will revolutionize our understanding of the Sun. The spacecraft is gradually orbiting closer to the Sun’s surface than any before it – well within the orbit of Mercury.
- Flying into the outermost part of the Sun’s atmosphere, the corona, for the first time, Parker Solar Probe is collecting measurements and images to expand our knowledge of the origin and evolution of solar wind.
- It also makes critical contributions to forecasting changes in the space environment that affect life and technology on Earth.
- Parker will fly more than seven times closer to the Sun than any spacecraft.
- Over seven years, the spacecraft will complete 24 orbits around the Sun.
- At its closest approach, the spacecraft will come within about 3.9 million miles (6.2 million kilometers) of the Sun.
Juno NASA
- Aug. 5, 2011
- Juno is probing beneath Jupiter’s dense clouds to answer questions about the origin and evolution of Jupiter, our solar system, and giant planets across the cosmos.
WHY STUDY JUPITER?
Because Jupiter is so big, it has been influential in the story of the solar system. We can’t understand the origin of the solar system – and how Earth came about – without understanding how Jupiter formed. There’s still a lot we don’t know about Jupiter: what is it made of? What lies beneath those beautiful, swirling clouds? What exactly drives its magnetic field?
