CAPE CANAVERAL: A NASA spacecraft has officially “touched” the sun, plunging through the unexplored solar atmosphere known as the corona.
Scientists announced the news Tuesday.
NASA’S Parker Solar Probe has become the first spacecraft, actually flew through the corona in April during the spacecraft’s eighth close approach to the sun.
Scientists say it took a few months to get the data back and then several more months to confirm it.
Launched in 2018, Parker was 8 million miles from the center of the sun when it first crossed the uneven boundary between the solar atmosphere and outgoing solar wind. The spacecraft dipped in and out of the corona at least three times, each a smooth transition, according to scientists.
It will keep drawing ever closer to the sun and diving deeper over the next 3 1/2 years.
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