Should NASA Spend Billions To Explore The Sun?

Hey there and welcome to Life Noggin.
Every day, we’re learning more and more about space and what’s out there.
I’m still hoping we find aliens one day, but until then, maybe we should try and learn
more about what we know is already in our cosmic backyard.
That big, scary thing you humans call the Sun seems like it could be pretty important.
Should we send out a probe and go explore it?
Well first off, just what is the Sun?
It may look like a giant, flaming cheese puff, but it’s actually a star that’s made of
extremely hot ionized gas called plasma.
It’s so warm that the temperature at the Sun’s core can be around 15 million degrees
Celsius!
That’s almost as hot as my mixtape.
The Sun is not just super hot, but super big too!
It’s average diameter is around 1.39 million kilometers.
If you want to feel super small, that’s about 109 times the diameter of Earth.
But why should we try and further study the Sun?
Some recent research from the National Academy of Sciences has a pretty compelling reason.
According to their study, they estimated that without advanced warning, a huge solar storm
could cause around 2 trillion dollars in damage across the United States alone, and lead to
widespread power outages for a long period of time.
If learning more about the Sun could potentially give us ways to warn ourselves, I’d say
that’s pretty important!
Plus, studying the Sun can help scientists learn more about how stars work and can help
in understanding the rest of the Universe.
So are there plans on exploring the Sun any time soon?
Yes, there are indeed!
With their eyes set on later next year, NASA hopes to launch their Parker Solar Probe,
which goes closer to the Sun’s surface than any spacecraft has before.
Its mission will be to come as close as 6.2 million kilometers to the Sun.
That’s within the orbit of Mercury!
I bet the other Roman gods will be jealous.
On its journey, this space probe hopes to trace the flow of energy that warms and accelerates
solar winds and the solar corona, explore what accelerates and transports energetic
particles, and find out the structure and dynamics of the magnetic and plasma fields
at the sources of solar wind.
With this information, scientists hope that they will be able to more accurately predict
space weather that could have huge negative effects on Earth.
India also hopes to join in the solar fun by launching their own satellite around 2019.
Called the Aditya-L1 mission, they hope to provide observations of the Sun’s Photosphere,
Chromosphere, and corona.
They want to achieve a better understanding of the dynamical processes of the Sun and
address outstanding issues in solar physics.
I wish both the the teams the best of luck on their missions!
So what else do you think we should try and explore further in space?
Let me know down in the comments below!
Make sure you come back every Monday for a brand new video.
As always, I’m Blocko and this has been Life Noggin.
Don’t forget to keep on thinking!
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Should NASA Spend Billions To Explore The Sun?

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