Though space research has made steady technological headways over the past years, the Sun has always remained the seemingly unconquerable frontier. NASA seems to have some very ambitious plans up it’s sleeve. Yes, you guessed it right, NASA is gearing up to develop a Solar Probe that will go up to 4.1 million miles near the sun. If you are laughing your heads off, you’d better remember that we are 93 million miles away from the sun. This solar probe will collect vital data which the NASA engineers hope to use for predicting solar storms and other complex solar phenomena.
First of all getting that close to the sun will be NASA’s biggest challenge for which they hope to give the Solar Probe a speed of 450000 miles per hour. And getting close to the sun brings with it temperatures topping 2400 Fahrenheit. So NASA also needs to develop cutting edge materials which need to withstand the extremely high temperatures. And if you are still wondering why NASA won’t go the whole hog and send the probe right into the sun, the Sun’s outer surface measures about 11000 degree Fahrenheit and it’s corona measures a very, very hot 1.8 million degree Fahrenheit. That, explains it all.
Via: CNN
