A New Dawn For Sun Science

By Brendan Byrne

Published March 18, 2020 at 5:19 AM EDT

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NASA's Nicky Fox in her solar-inspired dress talks about the Parker Solar Probe mission ahead of launch with other NASA sun scientists. Photo: NASA — In the Kennedy Space Center’s Press Site auditorium, on Friday, July 20, 2018, agency and mission leaders speak to members of the media during a prelaunch briefing for the Parker Solar Probe mission. From left are: Betsy Congdon, Thermal Protection System engineer with Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, Alex Young, solar scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, Nicky Fox, project scientist with the Johns Hopkins University APL, and Karen Fox of NASA Communications. The Parker Solar Probe will lift off on a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket from Space Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The spacecraft was built by Applied Physics Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University in Laurel in Maryland. The mission will perform the closest-ever observations of a star when it travels through the Sun's atmosphere, called the corona. The probe will rely on measurements and imaging to revolutionize understanding of the corona and the Sun-Earth connection.

There are now two new spacecraft zooming around the sun exploring our closest star. NASA’s Parker Solar Probe is getting an up close and personal look at the sun and its corona -- the wispy bits that radiate off the surface. And the recently launched Solar Orbiter will explore the poles of the sun.

All eyes are on the sun. So is this a new chapter of sun science? Our guest this week Nicky Fox says it is. She’s Director of the NASA Heliophysics Science Division and lead scientist on the Parker Solar Probe mission. We’ll talk about the early findings of the mission and how all this sun science will help better life here on Earth.

Then, the matter of antimatter. Our panel of expert scientists breakdown this fundamental piece of physics.