AP news reports that NASA’s Parker Solar Probe will fly again by the Sun, passing through its scorching atmosphere.
Last December, Parker set a historic record by coming within 3.8 million miles (6 million kilometers) of the Sun, closer than any object has ever been sent. The second flyby was on Saturday, but the mission team will not receive data until Tuesday afternoon due to a lack of communication.
Scientists hope Parker’s data will help them understand why the Sun’s outer atmosphere is hundreds of times hotter than its surface and what fuels the solar wind, a stream of supersonic charged particles that constantly travels away from the Sun.
