The Parker Solar Probe is a NASA space probe launched in 2018 with the mission of making observations of the outer corona of the Sun. It will approach to within 9.86 solar radii from the center of the Sun, and by 2025 will travel, at closest approach, as fast as 690,000 km/h (430,000 mph) or 191 km/s,
which is 0.064% the speed of light. It is the fastest object ever built.
A light bar testing in the Astrotech processing facility.
The thermal testing of the spacecraft.
PSP encapsulated in fairing.
Launch of the Parker Solar Probe in 2018
A corona is the outermost layer of a star's atmosphere. It is a hot but relatively dim region of plasma populated by intermittent coronal structures known as solar prominences or filaments.
The solar corona with its coronal streamers streaching out, as well as solar prominences (in red) along the limb of the earthshine illuminated Moon during a total solar eclipse.
Image from TRACE at 171Å wavelength (extreme ultraviolet) showing coronal loops
Image taken by the Solar Dynamics Observatory on October 16, 2010. A very long filament cavity is visible across the Sun's southern hemisphere.
On August 31, 2012, a long filament of solar material that had been hovering in the Sun's outer atmosphere, the corona, erupted at 4:36 p.m. EDT