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NASA To Make Announcement About First Mission To Touch Sun (nasa.gov)

Posted by msmash on from the way-to-go dept.

NASA published the following media advisory moments ago: NASA will make an announcement about the agency's first mission to fly directly into our sun's atmosphere during an event at 11 a.m. EDT Wednesday, May 31, from the University of Chicago's William Eckhardt Research Center Auditorium. The event will air live on NASA Television and the agency's website. The mission, Solar Probe Plus, is scheduled to launch in the summer of 2018. Placed in orbit within four million miles of the sun's surface, and facing heat and radiation unlike any spacecraft in history, the spacecraft will explore the sun's outer atmosphere and make critical observations that will answer decades-old questions about the physics of how stars work. The resulting data will improve forecasts of major space weather events that impact life on Earth, as well as satellites and astronauts in space.

85 comments

  1. Plot twist: by skirmish666 · · Score: 5, Funny

    They're going at night?

    --
    Sigger than your average
    1. Re:Plot twist: by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      They're going at night?

      From TFS: first mission to fly directly into our sun's atmosphere during an event at 11 a.m. EDT Wednesday, May 31

      11am is not "at night".

    2. Re:Plot twist: by Baron_Yam · · Score: 2

      That's the time of the official announcement of the mission, not the launch or arrival.

      They'll time the arrival for night to mitigate heating issues, obviously.

    3. Re:Plot twist: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Whoosh!

    4. Re:Plot twist: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Clicked for the "night" joke. Was not disappointed, just surprised it's the first post.

    5. Re:Plot twist: by haruchai · · Score: 1

      They're going at night?

      North Korea already accomplished this years ago.
      All Hail our Dear Flattop Leader

      --
      Pain is merely failure leaving the body
    6. Re:Plot twist: by MichaelSmith · · Score: 1

      11am where you live is likely to be night where I live. Maybe they are launching from a space center near me?

      --
      http://michaelsmith.id.au
    7. Re:Plot twist: by Scarletdown · · Score: 1

      Clicked for the "night" joke. Was not disappointed, just surprised it's the first post.

      Same here. Now that the night joke has manifested so early on, I am now continuing the scan and looking for Hitchhiker's Guide jokes and quotes.

      --
      This space unintentionally left blank.
    8. Re:Plot twist: by skirmish666 · · Score: 1

      NASA will make an announcement about the agency's first mission to fly directly into our sun's atmosphere during an event at 11 a.m EDT Wednesday, May 31, from the University of Chicago's William Eckhardt Research Center Auditorium

      I didn't realize NASA had a launch platform at Chicago's William Eckhardt Research Center Auditorium either, thanks for clearing that up!

      --
      Sigger than your average
    9. Re:Plot twist: by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      Don't be an idiot. Even at night the sun is extremely hot. They'll wait for a solar eclipse.

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
  2. Solar Probe Plus? Name Botch! by RavenLrD20k · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Project Icarus. This needs to be called Project Icarus.

    1. Re: Solar Probe Plus? Name Botch! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I hope it's not named that. Sunshine was a brilliant movie until it became complete and utter trash 2/3 of the way through running the film completely. Hopefully you're referring to a different Icarus because that one is hot shit, and I'd prefer to have a probe worth more than the movie.

  3. Where is the tiny "hot!" image? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I miss that.

  4. Touch Sun Tzu? by Spy+Handler · · Score: 1

    Does he have a nice butt or what?

    Oh you mean THE sun, as in our star... if you leave out the "the" it changes the meaning.

    1. Re:Touch Sun Tzu? by Wraithlyn · · Score: 1

      Maybe to pedantic nitwits.

      The rest of us understand such concepts as "context" and "title brevity".

      --
      "Mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent present in every electron." -Freeman Dyson
  5. "Touch" the Sun? by sanosuke001 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It isn't going to touch the Sun; it won't get anywhere near the surface... still cool nonetheless.

    --
    -SaNo
    1. Re:"Touch" the Sun? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      On the contrary, it will be very very hot.

    2. Re:"Touch" the Sun? by OrangeTide · · Score: 1

      Protons will leave the Sun and touch it though.

      --
      “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
    3. Re:"Touch" the Sun? by sanosuke001 · · Score: 1

      Yeah, in the same way we all "touch" the Sun every day.

      --
      -SaNo
    4. Re:"Touch" the Sun? by BoRegardless · · Score: 1

      Touch, no, unless they mean the Sun's residue particles.

      Cool? No way. We are at about 94 million miles from the Sun now. Going to 4 million miles will up the amount of radiation by orders of magnitude.

    5. Re:"Touch" the Sun? by harrkev · · Score: 1

      still cool nonetheless

      They wish. Keeping it cool is going to be the hard part.

      --
      "-1 Troll" is the apparently the same as "-1 I disagree with you."
    6. Re:"Touch" the Sun? by OrangeTide · · Score: 1

      Hopefully you aren't being hit by energetic protons from the Sun, that would end very badly for you after a while.

      --
      “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
    7. Re:"Touch" the Sun? by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 2

      It isn't going to touch the Sun; it won't get anywhere near the surface...

      The sun is a ball of gas. It does not have a "surface" in any meaningful sense.

    8. Re:"Touch" the Sun? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Then NASA will privatize future Sun endeavors. Pornhub will likely launch the next mission to "probe" the Sun.

    9. Re:"Touch" the Sun? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I really don't want to know what you do with Page 3.

    10. Re:"Touch" the Sun? by swillden · · Score: 1

      It isn't going to touch the Sun; it won't get anywhere near the surface...

      The sun is a ball of gas. It does not have a "surface" in any meaningful sense.

      Nuh uh! It has a solid iron surface just below the photosphere. http://www.thesurfaceofthesun....

      (I can't figure out if that guy is serious or has constructed an elaborate hoax. I'm leaning towards the former.)

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
    11. Re:"Touch" the Sun? by msauve · · Score: 1

      With protons, Sun touches you.

      --
      "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
    12. Re:"Touch" the Sun? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My brain must be fridayed, I read that as enerpetic phogons

    13. Re:"Touch" the Sun? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      There are a number of ways to define the depth of the Sun's atmosphere.
      1. The largest is the Heliosphere which is very roughly a tear-drop shaped region varying between 121 AU (astronomical units) and a lot larger (the heliotail is of unknown length). The boundary between the heliosphere and the local interstellar medium is called the heliopause and is defined as the region where the "pressure" of the interstellar medium is balanced by the "pressure" of the solar wind. Fewer and fewer low speed particles are flowing away from the Sun past the heliopause, and fewer low speed cosmic rays (and cosmic dust) are able to penetrate past it. Voyager spacecraft have passed the heliopause and are in interstellar space.
      2. The next logical definition is the "termination shock" where the solar wind's speed transitions from supersonic to subsonic (due to 'resistance' as well as the particles climbing out of the Sun's gravitational well). This is out at about 80 to 90 AU (twice to thrice the distance to Pluto).
      3. Next logical "surface" is the "end" of the Corona, which is the region which looks like a halo around the Sun when photographed during a solar eclipse. It surrounds the Sun (but its distance varies with time and electric/magnetic field strength) for millions of kilometers (the Sun's diameter is about 1.4 Gm (giga meter = million km)). It's the region of space where the Solar Wind is so hot that it's visibly glowing.
      4. The photosphere is the Sun's "usual" or generally accepted surface. It's a relatively thin region - optically a bit more transparent that Earth's sea level (dry, clean) atmosphere (but of course a lot hotter 4000 - 6000C and less dense (0.0002 (vs 1.25 kg/m^3 at 1 atm))). It's about 400-500 km thick and is defined as the region below which the Sun has become opaque to visible light. The chromosphere directly above it is much hotter, a inconvenient fact that we've yet to explain. This region is where the surfaces of sunspots can be seen, and below it is the convection zone where the Sun's inner material floats up and radiates heat. (It takes an estimated 170,000 years for a photon released in the core in a fusion reaction to bump it's way to the 'surface' of the Sun, (assuming you're ok with the idea that one gamma-ray photon scatteres into thousands of lower frequency photons but still is in some way the same thing... The heat from that same fusion reaction takes a lot longer, millions of years, to make its way to the surface...but none of this has anything to do with locating the "surface"...)
      The Earth is immersed inside the Solar Wind, as far as I'm concerned we're inside the Sun, although our magnetic field protects us from a lot of radiation. "Touching" the Sun is a bit of hyperbole.

    14. Re: "Touch" the Sun? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The photosphere works as a really good boundary to refer to as the surface for several reasons. At the very least, the density increases by many orders of magnitude over a short distance, more so than the density increases going from 100 km above Earth's surface to the rock below the surface. In other words, it is a much larger relative density gradient than from low Earth orbit to rock.

    15. Re:"Touch" the Sun? by thinkwaitfast · · Score: 1

      Depends on the flux

    16. Re:"Touch" the Sun? by thinkwaitfast · · Score: 1

      It's a miasma of incandescent plasma.

    17. Re:"Touch" the Sun? by thinkwaitfast · · Score: 1

      That's one of my favourite websites.

    18. Re:"Touch" the Sun? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As others have mentioned, the Sun doesn't have a well-defined boundary. When I first saw this headline I thought well some could consider the solar wind itself to be an extended part of the Sun's outer atmosphere, so they're hardly the first by those standards.

      The solar atmosphere is so hot that the gas is primarily in a plasma state: electrons are no longer bound to atomic nuclei, and the gas is made up of charged particles (mostly protons and electrons). In this charged state, the solar atmosphere is greatly influenced by the strong solar magnetic fields that thread through it. These magnetic fields, and the outer solar atmosphere (the corona) extend out into interplanetary space as part of the solar wind.

    19. Re:"Touch" the Sun? by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      Nuh uh! It has a solid iron surface just below the photosphere. http://www.thesurfaceofthesun....

      The average density of the sun is 1410 kg/m^3 and the outer layers are much less dense than that. The density of iron is 7870 kg/m^3. So I don't think so.

    20. Re: "Touch" the Sun? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's a great post!

    21. Re:"Touch" the Sun? by swillden · · Score: 1

      Nuh uh! It has a solid iron surface just below the photosphere. http://www.thesurfaceofthesun....

      The average density of the sun is 1410 kg/m^3 and the outer layers are much less dense than that. The density of iron is 7870 kg/m^3. So I don't think so.

      But the iron is porous. Didn't you see his pictures? And apparently solid at high temperature, and strong enough to avoid crushing the pores closed. Maybe it's iron from Krypton.

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
    22. Re:"Touch" the Sun? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Sun is a ball of *plasma*. This is what we get for dumbing elementary science down to just 3 states of matter.

  6. Re:Solar Probe Plus? Name Botch! by The+Grim+Reefer · · Score: 2

    Project Icarus. This needs to be called Project Icarus.

    Yeah, that didn't exactly work out the way he planned, did it?

  7. Well duh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They're going at night?

    Of course they are. How else do you think they keep the probe from burning up?

    It took the biggest brains to figure this one out. The President was involved personally.

  8. Re:Solar Probe Plus? Name Botch! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    DAEDALUS!

  9. Please, please, please, by TFlan91 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Please let's spin this as "the first human to touch the sun", so we can convince Trump's ego to make him go first...

    1. Re:Please, please, please, by MillionthMonkey · · Score: 4, Funny

      "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the sun and returning him safely to the Earth!"

    2. Re:Please, please, please, by gman003 · · Score: 1

      Trump would deliver that quote via Twitter, so it would cut off after "returning". Maybe less, if he uses a hashtag.

  10. Okay I think its safe to say this one.... by coolmoe2 · · Score: 1

    Will not have an extended mission like many of NASA's other projects. I can't imagine how its going to hold up against that kind of environment.

  11. Re:Hey! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Polack jokes are no longer considered acceptable.

    This kind of stupidity makes Polacks look brilliant.

  12. Re:Hey! by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

    You mean the plumbers? That's why we voted for brexit.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  13. Re:Hey! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They have always been acceptable and hilarious.

  14. Going out with a Big Bang. by geekmux · · Score: 0

    I can practically hear the NASA commentators already...

    (Harry) "Well folks, we've made it!! After 390 billion dollars and months of waiting, we're finally here to obser..."

    (the Sun) FWOOOOOOOSH!

    (Harry) "Fuck me sidways, that was the most expensive solar flare in history. What say you, Dick?"

    (Dick) "Yup. Reminds of that one night in Vegas when I was banging a hooker on the high-stakes blackjack table. Fun while it lasted."

  15. Good Game, Shitty Meme by sexconker · · Score: 1

    Praise the sun!

  16. Re:Hey! by darthsilun · · Score: 1

    Where's the "-1 You're an Idiot" downvote?

    Nowhere did OP say anything about Polacks. But you nicely filled in the missing bits.

    (And yes, when I first heard the joke – about a million years ago – it was the Polish Space Agency going to the Sun at night.)

  17. Re:Hey! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No self control? You just had to fill in the missing bits
    A bit like Twitler telling the Russians about laptop bombs.
    Ooh, Ooh, Ooh, I know something you don't know. Let me tell you what it is. Because I've got the best intel. Ooh, Ooh.
    Donald, is that you?

  18. Sun Probe! by Traf-O-Data-Hater · · Score: 1

    Let's hope they don't need the help of Thunderbirds 2, 3 and Brains' Rescue Beam!

  19. Re:Solar Probe Plus? Name Botch! by Cyberpunk+Reality · · Score: 2

    The idea that a quasi-biological alien probe could ride down the telematter stream was impossible based on everything we knew at the time. Simply because it was compromised in ways its creators could not have imagined, and human civilization collapsed as a result, does not mean that the creation of the Icarus Array was a bad idea.

    --
    Rule 35 of the internet: "If it can be hacked, it will be". - Charles Stross
  20. Re:Solar Probe Plus? Name Botch! by johnslater · · Score: 1

    The wax and feathers are going to need a lot of thermal shielding.

  21. Disaster Area! by TheOuterLinux · · Score: 1

    Please name the craft Disaster Area! PLEASE!

    1. Re:Disaster Area! by Scarletdown · · Score: 1

      Or Sundiver.

      And while they are at it, the insurance company that should underwrite the mission should be Hotblack Desiatio.

      --
      This space unintentionally left blank.
    2. Re:Disaster Area! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or Sundiver.

      And while they are at it, the insurance company that should underwrite the mission should be Hotblack Desiatio.

      Already been done, I have it on good authority that an asset somewhere within Cheyanne mountain made a classified mission which interacted with a solar flare in 1969 and 2010. It is not clear from the report on wikileaks whether this was one mission that lasted 41 years or two separate missions but both referenced a document passed from a fellow named Colonial O'Neil. It is unlikely that someone would be involved with the same mission for 41 years though.

  22. Not sure why anyone wants to touch the Sun by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 1

    After all, the rents there are outrageous.

    --
    #DeleteChrome
  23. Re:Solar Probe Plus? Name Botch! by ArylAkamov · · Score: 1

    Source? sounds neat

  24. It’s been done before :) by Pig+Hogger · · Score: 1

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

  25. Re: Solar Probe Plus? Name Botch! by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1

    Hopefully you're referring to a different Icarus because that one is hot shit, and I'd prefer to have a probe worth more than the movie.

    Used to be I could tell which ones were the trolls around here.

    --
    My God, it's Full of Source!
    OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
  26. Re:Solar Probe Plus? Name Botch! by theguyfromsaturn · · Score: 2

    I'm not that excited. Call me when they launch the Sundiver Project.

    --
    I like my dinosaurs feathery, and my pterosaurs hairy (or is it pycnofibery?)
  27. Hostile environment by manu0601 · · Score: 1

    It will be interesting to learn the improvements for electronics to survive such an hostile environment, with high energy particles, gamma rays, and intense heat.

  28. Re:Solar Probe Plus? Name Botch! by MichaelSmith · · Score: 1

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    --
    http://michaelsmith.id.au
  29. Re:Solar Probe Plus? Name Botch! by MichaelSmith · · Score: 1

    Its like current flow: electrons go one way, positive charge "holes" go the other way. Except its with antimatter, not electric charge. I hope Watts is working on a third book. The first was great. The second, ok.

    --
    http://michaelsmith.id.au
  30. Re: Solar Probe Plus? Name Botch! by MichaelSmith · · Score: 1

    Don'y you know that you can just stop your space ship and get off any time you want?

    --
    http://michaelsmith.id.au
  31. Trump will only fund it after the fact. by Snufu · · Score: 1

    And only if it confirms the sun revolves around him. Any other conclusion: #FakeScience

  32. Ummagumma by emaname · · Score: 1

    Set the controls for the heart of the sun.

    They better be streaming that when it goes into orbit or else stoners everywhere will be really disappointed. Well, actually, they would be if they weren't so stoned.

    Hey, careful with that axe Eugene!

    --
    An effective "democracy" creates the illusion the people have a say in their government.
  33. Re:Solar Probe Plus? Name Botch! by RavenLrD20k · · Score: 1

    Helios Too.

  34. Trump Will Shut It Down by Required+Snark · · Score: 1
    "The resulting data will improve forecasts of major space weather events that impact life on Earth,"

    As soon as the press conference occurs one of Trump's toadies will scurry back to the White House (imagine a cockroach) and tattle tail that NASA has defied the President and has a mission to study the weather. Trump will fly into a rage and change NASA's budget priorities. NASA will be charged to prove the world i flat and was formed by God 6000 years ago.

    1. Prove the Earth is Flat.

    2. ???

    3. Profit!!

    --
    Why is Snark Required?
  35. Re:Solar Probe Plus? Name Botch! by BenBoy · · Score: 1

    Perhaps a more optimistic name might be Prometheus? Or ... what was the ship name in Bradbury's "Golden Apples of the Sun"?

  36. Send The Donald by jalet · · Score: 1

    Please send him up there too. Thanks in advance.

    --
    Votez ecolo : Chiez dans l'urne !
  37. Send Smashmouth by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Because they might as well be walking on the sun.

  38. Re: Solar Probe Plus? Name Botch! by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

    Alright, we'll use the other Icarus. However, I don't see how a winged kid with a bow will help us get telemetry about our star.

    --
    #DeleteFacebook
  39. Re:Hey! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That's the "Your an Idiot" downvote. FTFY

  40. Permission to Touch? by DougF · · Score: 1

    If NASA's probe doesn't have permission to touch the Sun , it could get burned...

    --
    Impetuous! Homeric!
    1. Re:Permission to Touch? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Permission to touch the sun has not been granted. Bureaucrats at the EPA have yet to make a decision.

  41. Oh NoooooooðY by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But the sun is a big balloon full of gas! The spaceship will pop it and send billion degree gas surging to earth! The White House Science Advisor told me so.

  42. Why the corona is much hotter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See these pages.

  43. Trump by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Please send Trump

  44. Obligatory star trek generations reference by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See the subject^^^^

    Will we be sending the Muslims into the sun?