The Parker Space Probe Will Fly Closer To The Sun Than Any Probe In History

If you didn’t realize it from sitting on a beach for a few hours after forgetting to put on lotion, the Sun is super hot. The more we want to learn about it, the closer we have to get. After 8 years of development, the Parker Space Probe will launch in July, but it still has to undergo more testing.

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After testing it for vibration at John Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland, it headed off to NASA’s Goddard Space Center, where it was hit with 6-foot tall speakers that reached as high as 150 decibels. And that’s all done to see if it can survive the launch into space.

The real test for the probe will be surviving the intense radiation that the Sun puts out. Not only that, but it needs to harness that power to power itself with its solar panels. This means shooting 44 strings of solar cells that will power the ship.

What this probe hopes to accomplish with its mission is to give scientists insights into solar wind, the aurora borealis, and even how the Martian atmosphere was destroyed. It’ll also probably give us some really cool pictures of our closest star.

Check out this video below to see more of the Parker Space Probe.