PARKER Solar Probe

Parker Solar Probe is a NASA mission that will swoop to within 4 million miles of the Sun's surface, facing heat and radiation like no spacecraft before it. Launched on August 12, 2018, Parker Solar Probe is providing new data on solar activity and make critical contributions to our ability to forecast major space-weather events that impact life on Earth.
The primary science goals for the mission are, to trace the flow of energy to understand the heating of the solar corona and to explore what accelerates the solar wind. Parker Solar Probe provides a statistical survey of the outer corona.
With support from CNES, many French research laboratories as LPC2E, LESIA, IRAP, LPP or LAM are contributing to Parker Solar Probe’s instruments as well as the PROMES laboratory, which operates the solar furnace in Odeillo in the French Pyrenees to study the behavior of the structure in the extreme conditions of this mission.

Parker Solar Probe is scheduled to arrive into our star' outer atmosphere in 2024.

Access to mission data

Access to mission documents