Namesake of NASA's sun-touching spacecraft dies at age 94
to study the sun's outer atmosphere, called the corona, by diving within 4 million miles of the visible surface of the sun. The spacecraft uses four instrument suites to study the superheated corona in an attempt to understand where the solar wind originates. The mission is expected to continue observations until 2025.
The mission, originally dubbed Solar Probe+, was named for Parker in 2017, making him the first living scientist to see a spacecraft named in his honor. Parker himself attended the launch, his first ever. "Anyone who knew Dr. Parker, knew that he was a visionary," Nicola Fox, director of NASA's heliophysics division, said in the agency statement."I was honored to stand with him at the launch of Parker Solar Probe and have loved getting to share with him all the exciting science results, seeing his face light up with every new image and data plot I showed him. I will sincerely miss his excitement and love for Parker Solar Probe. Even though Dr.
In 1955, Parker joined the University of Chicago, where he contributed to astrophysics for another 67 years, according to the