Fall 2018

If all goes well, during the next seven years the Parker Solar Probe, which launched in mid-August, will orbit the sun 24 times and come within 4 million miles at its nearest approach. That may not sound all that close, but it’s seven times closer than any previous mission, so close it will observe the solar wind when the plasma stream is still subsonic, so close that it will fly through the sun’s atmosphere and encounter temperatures as high as 2,500 degrees. / Johns Hopkins Magazine