NASA is planning to touch the sun with its worlds fastest spacecraft called as Parker Solar Probe.
It is going to be launched on 4th of August with a size of car and it would be the first spacecraft to travel through the outer atmosphere of the sun which is called as corona.
Parker Solar Probe will travel around the sun for a dozen of times for next seven years. It will be collecting datas from 6 million kilometers away from the star's surface which would be seven times as close as any other spacecraft. The closeup observations made by the spacecraft would help to understand the inner workings of the sun's atmopshere and as well as other characterstics of sun also this would also help to understand the weather in space. With the size of a small car, the Parker Solar Probe will have instruments which could take 3-D images, measure electric and magnetic fields and catalog high-energy particles.
To protect Parker’s instruments against the heat and radiation of the sun an heat shield composed of a layer of carbon foam sandwiched between panes of another carbon-based material similar to the graphite epoxy used to make golf clubs and tennis rackets is used. As Parker Solar Probe revolves around the sun, this heat shield will continuously face the star to keep the instruments safe from radiation and heat.
