The dark spot appearing on the lower portion of Venus is an artifact from the WISPR instrument.Ĭredit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Naval Research Laboratory/Guillermo Stenborg and Brendan Gallagher The number of streaks varies along the orbit or when the spacecraft is traveling at different speeds, and scientists are still in discussion about the specific origins of the streaks here. Bright streaks in WISPR, such as the ones seen here, are typically caused by a combination of charged particles - called cosmic rays - sunlight reflected by grains of space dust, and particles of material expelled from the spacecraft’s structures after impact with those dust grains. The prominent dark feature in the center of the image is Aphrodite Terra, the largest highland region on the Venusian surface. When flying past Venus in July 2020, Parker Solar Probe’s WISPR instrument, short for Wide-field Imager for Parker Solar Probe, detected a bright rim around the edge of the planet that may be nightglow - light emitted by oxygen atoms high in the atmosphere that recombine into molecules in the nightside.
12, 2018 the red loops indicate the probe’s future, progressively closer orbits toward the Sun. The green lines denote the spacecraft’s path since launch on Aug. The graphic above marks Parker Solar Probe’s location on May 18. Having completed the TCM on May 15, the mission team will evaluate the necessity of the other course-correction maneuvers over the next several months.Ĭredit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Yanping Guo The diagram includes the dates and locations of planned trajectory correction maneuvers (TCMs) leading up to, and just after, the spacecraft’s fifth Venus gravity assist flyby – VGA5 – on Oct. Jackson Award, which recognizes the most outstanding contribution to aerospace in the preceding year.Ĭredit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab/Adriana Manrique GutierrezĬomposite image of the Parker Solar Probe mission team at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, shortly before the spacecraft was launched in 2018.Īmong the major topics covered in the Astronomy & Astrophysics papers are magnetic switchbacks first discovered by Parker Solar Probe, the role of waves in heating solar plasma, solar angular momentum, the near-Sun dust environment, and the diversity of small energetic-particle eventsĭiagram of Parker Solar Probe’s latest and next two orbits and close approaches – or perihelion – to the Sun. 12, 2018 the red loops indicate the probe’s future, progressively closer orbits toward the Sun.Ĭredit: Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Yanping GuoĬredit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribbenįor its efforts to untangle the long-standing mysteries of the complex solar environment - such as activity in the magnetic field embedded in the solar wind, illustrated above - the Parker Solar Probe team has earned the National Space Club and Foundation’s Nelson P.
The graphic above marks Parker Solar Probe’s location on Sept.
Parker Solar Probe is observing higher than expected amounts of dust near the Sun, which mission scientists say could improve our understanding of the innermost regions of our heliosphere - and offer insight into an environment that, until now, was a total mystery. the spacecraft, built and operated at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, launched on Aug. Parker Solar Probe is in the 10th of 24 planned, progressively closer orbits around the Sun.