#NASA #USA #space #Technology #sun #science
NASA, the American space agency, is planning to send its first robotic spacecraft to the Sun next year. The spacecraft us supposed to get within six million kilometers of the sun to probe its atmosphere. (The distance between the Sun and the Earth is 149 million kilometers)
The mission is supposed to answer three major questions that still baffle the scientists:
- Why is the surface of the Sun (Photosphere) not as hot as its atmosphere. (The temperature of the Photosphere is a mere 5,550 degree Celsius, however, the temperature of the Atmosphere is 2 million degree Celsius!)
- How do the Solar wind gets its speed. (The Sun blows charged particles in all directions at a million miles an hour, but somehow the particles get accelerated)
- Why Sun emits dangerous high-energy particles that are a danger to unprotected astronauts and spacecraft.
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