Exploring the Sun

Abstract

NASA has selected five science investigations for its Solar Probe Plus, a spacecraft slated to launch by 2018 and explore the Sun's corona as it extends into space. The selected science proposals include an investigation to count electrons, protons, and helium ions in the solar wind and measure their properties; a wide‐field imager telescope to make three‐dimensional images of the Sun's corona; and a fields experiment to make direct measurements of electric and magnetic fields, radio emissions, and shock waves moving through the Sun's atmospheric plasma. Other selected proposals include an integrated science investigation of the Sun to monitor electrons, protons, and ions accelerated to high energies in the Sun's atmosphere and an investigation of heliospheric origins.“The experiments selected for Solar Probe Plus are specifically designed to solve two key questions of solar physics—why is the Sun's outer atmosphere so much hotter than the Sun's visible surface and what propels the solar wind that affects Earth and our solar system? We've been struggling with these questions for decades and this mission should finally provide those answers,” said Richard Fisher, director of NASA's Heliophysics Division.