Occasionally NASA or National Aeronautics and Space Administration like to involve the world in their missions in outer space. This Year you be part of the NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Mission to the sun by adding your name to a microchip that will be added to the probe. The last time a registration people could sign up and be part of was the InSight Mission to Mars back in 2016.
You have until April 27, 2018 to get your name registered. So how do you sign up? Easy Click on this link http://parkersolarprobe.jhuapl.edu/The-Mission/Name-to-Sun/ for the mission. The below image is what this certificate would look like all filled out.
Origins of the Parker Solar Probe Name
As for the name of the probe itself, it is named after astrophysicist Eugene Parker, who also has the distinguished honor of being the first living person to has his or her name attach to a NASA space craft. As for why Mr. Parker received this honor has to actually do with the sun itself.
“In the 1950s, Parker proposed a number of concepts about how stars — including our Sun — give off energy. He called this cascade of energy the solar wind, and he described an entire complex system of plasmas, magnetic fields and energetic particles that make up this phenomenon. Parker also theorized an explanation for the superheated solar atmosphere, the corona, which is — contrary to what was expected by physics laws — hotter than the surface of the Sun itself. Many NASA missions have continued to focus on this complex space environment defined by our star.”
I am sure this mission will help make sense of Mr. Parker’s theories and concepts and hopefully prove them true as well.
Parker Solar Probe Mission Information
So what is the Parker Solar Probe gonna do? “The primary science goals for the mission are to trace how energy and heat move through the solar corona and to explore what accelerates the solar wind as well as solar energetic particles.” In other words we are about to learn more about our sun than we ever have and as a science junkie myself, I find this to be very cool to understand the engine that drives our solar system. To learn more about this 7 year mission please click here for a more detailed Parker Probe Mission overview.
Parker Solar Probe Mission Participation
So what do you get when you register your name? You get a downloadable certificate with your name and the fact you will be getting very close and personal with our sun.
