NASA Launches Mission To ‘Touch The Sun’

Space stuff has ALWAYS interested me. Can’t you tell by the way I just said, “Space stuff”? Not very scientific or space-y, I know. Give me a break.

But I’m serious. When I was a kid, I did a project where I painted a bunch of planets, and I was hooked– so hooked that my dad bought me a telescope. Alas, my love of space evaporated after I realized I didn’t have the chops to be an astronaut. I hate math and had the tendency to be scared of everything. Not the best combination for someone who wants to be an astronaut.

I still think it’s cool though, and I’ll OBVIOUSLY buy a “Space Force” shirt. Duh.

ANYWAY. This is kinda interesting.

NASA has launched a mission to “touch the sun.”

From NASA:

Hours before the rise of the very star it will study, NASA’s Parker Solar Probelaunched from Florida Sunday to begin its journey to the Sun, where it will undertake a landmark mission. The spacecraft will transmit its first science observations in December, beginning a revolution in our understanding of the star that makes life on Earth possible.

Roughly the size of a small car, the spacecraft lifted off at 3:31 a.m. EDT on a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket from Space Launch Complex-37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. At 5:33 a.m., the mission operations manager reported that the spacecraft was healthy and operating normally.

The mission’s findings will help researchers improve their forecasts of space weather events, which have the potential to damage satellites and harm astronauts on orbit, disrupt radio communications and, at their most severe, overwhelm power grids.

“This mission truly marks humanity’s first visit to a star that will have implications not just here on Earth, but how we better understand our universe,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. “We’ve accomplished something that decades ago, lived solely in the realm of science fiction.”

It’s pretty cool!

I don’t know– just thought it was cool!