How NASA's Parker Probe Will Touch the Sun
NASA's Parker Probe will launch this summer and makes many firsts in space exploration. Over the course of seven years, it will orbit Venus, eventually becoming the fastest man-made object as it passes through the sun's corona, then becoming the closest man-made object to our nearest star. The Parker Probe's heat shields will disintegrate as it moves through the corona, and its instruments will operate at room temperature as it tries to solve the mystery behind why the corona is hotter than the surface of the sun. The data is years away, but the Park Probe is poised to help us better understand the life-giving body so close to home.