USA - NASA Satellite Approaches Sun
The Parker Solar Probe plunged into our star’s outer atmosphere, enduring brutal temperatures and extreme radiation in a quest to better our understanding of how the Sun works.
Dr Nicola Fox, head of science at Nasa, previously told BBC News: “For centuries, people have studied the Sun, but you don’t experience the atmosphere of a place until you actually go [and] visit it.
“And so we can’t really experience the atmosphere of our star unless we fly through it.”
At its closest approach, the probe was 3.8 million miles (6.1 million km) from our star’s surface.
That might not sound that close, but Dr Fox put it into perspective. “We are 93 million miles away from the Sun, so if I put the Sun and the Earth one meter apart, Parker Solar Probe is 4cm from the Sun—so that’s close.”
Scientists hope that as the spacecraft passed through our star’s outer atmosphere—its corona—it will have collected data that will solve a long-standing mystery.
“The corona is really, really hot, and we have no idea why,” explained Dr Jenifer Millard, an astronomer at Fifth Star Labs in Wales.
The mission should also help scientists better understand solar wind—the constant stream of charged particles bursting out from the corona.
“Understanding the Sun, its activity, space weather, the solar wind, is so important to our everyday lives on Earth,” said Dr Millard.
Scientists hope the probe will help us to solve some solar mysteries.
-www.bbc.com, 27 December 2024
Arno's Commentary
One must admire applied technology enabling a manmade object to do this. When reading the entirety of the report, one notices man’s desire to somehow unravel the mystery of God’s creation.
What is the sun’s future?
We have previously quoted from the 2006 book, Decoding the Universe by Charles Seife, who begins his introduction: “Civilization is doomed. Humanity, and all life in the universe, is going to be wiped out … The laws of information have sealed our fate, just as they have sealed the fate of the universe itself.”
What does the Bible say? Luke 23:44-45 reports: “And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst.” That was a prophetic act showing the future. “And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof” (Revelation 21:23). The apostle Peter confirms: “Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?” (2 Peter 3:12).
Yes, information has determined the end of our universe; however, we believers may rejoice: “Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness” (2 Peter 3:13).
Arno Froese is the executive director of Midnight Call Ministries and editor-in-chief of the acclaimed prophetic magazines Midnight Call and News From Israel. He has authored a number of well-received books, and has sponsored many prophecy conferences in the U.S., Canada, and Israel. His extensive travels have contributed to his keen insight into Bible prophecy, as he sees it from an international perspective.
