Unveiling the Sun's Secrets: Parker Solar Probe's Historic Encounters
The Solar Orbiter spacecraft, in collaboration with NASA's Parker Solar Probe, has made groundbreaking measurements that shed light on the 65-year-old mystery of why the Sun's atmosphere, known as the corona, is hotter than its surface. By combining remote sensing and in-situ measurements, the two spacecraft provided the first-ever simultaneous observations of the large-scale configuration of the corona and the microphysical properties of the plasma. The data suggests that turbulence in the solar atmosphere plays a significant role in heating the corona, transferring energy from larger to smaller scales and ultimately converting it into heat. While more research is needed, this represents a significant step forward in understanding the coronal heating problem.
