为什么NASA想要“触摸太阳”
The sun, the very centerpiece of our solar system and the most important source of energy for life on Earth, has a visitor.
太阳是太阳系的中心，也是地球上生命最重要的能量来源。
NASA's Parker Solar Probe, as seen in this illustration, will eventually fy to within 4 million miles of the sun's surface. (Photo: NASA, Steve Gribben)
NASA's Parker Solar Probe has been studying the sun, flying closer than ever before, and making incredible new discoveries with each new visit. The latest visit, which NASA scientists have described in several papers just published in the journal Nature, has revealed never-before-seen characteristics of the solar wind at its birthplace, information that can help us understand why solar winds can be so turbulent and, at times, destructive to modern life on Earth.
NASA的帕克太阳探测器一直在研究太阳，比以往任何时候都飞得更近，并在每次新的访问中都有令人难以置信的新发现。最近的一次访问，美国宇航局的科学家描述在刚刚发表在“自然”杂志上的几篇论文中，揭示了太阳风在其发源地从未见过的特征，这些信息可以帮助我们理解太阳风为什么可以如此动荡不安，有时还会破坏地球上的现代生活。
Why this mission is a big deal
为什么这次任务如此重要
At Cape Canaveral, the Delta IV Heavy rocket with NASA’s Parker Solar Probe lifts off at 3:31 a.m. EDT on Aug. 12, 2018. (Photo: NASA/Kim Shiflett)
The probe achieved a milestone in October 2018 by becoming the closest man-made object to the sun. The previous record was held by the German-U.S. Helios 2 satellite, which was 26.55 million miles from the sun. Over the next several years, the probe will orbit closer to the sun with the closest approach being 3.83 million miles away.
2018年10月，探测器成为离太阳最近的人造物体，达到了一个里程碑。此前的纪录由德美两国保持。太阳神2号卫星，距离太阳2655万英里。在接下来的几年里，探测器的轨道将更靠近太阳，最近的距离为383万英里。
The probe is named after astrophysicist Eugene Parker, the S. Chandrasekhar Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Chicago, who discovered the phenomenon now known as solar wind.
该探测器以天体物理学家尤金·帕克的名字命名。帕克是芝加哥大学天文学和天体物理学系的名誉教授，他发现了现在被称为太阳风的现象。
This is the first time NASA has named a mission after a living individual, a testament to Parker's vast body of work.
这是NASA第一次以活人的名字来命名一项任务，这是帕克大量工作的证明。
As the Parker Solar Probe makes its approach to the sun, it will experience temperatures outside its heat shield of nearly 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit. (Photo: NASA/Steve Gribben)
Unlike the Greek legend Icarus, whose wings melted when he flew too close to the sun, NASA's new spacecraft came prepared. To protect its instruments from temperatures approaching 2,600 degrees Fahrenheit (1,426 degrees Celsius), the Parker Solar Probe (which was originally named the Solar Probe Plus) features an 8-foot-wide, 4.5-inch-thick carbon-composite foam shield called the Thermal Protection System (TPS).
与希腊传奇人物伊卡洛斯(Icarus)不同的是，当他飞得太靠近太阳时，他的翅膀就会融化。为了保护它的仪器不受接近2600华氏度(1426摄氏度)的温度的影响，帕克太阳能探测器(它最初的名字是太阳能探测器+)有一个8英尺宽，4.5英寸厚的碳复合泡沫护罩，叫做热保护系统(TPS)。
At that point, the Parker Solar Probe will make history by becoming the fastest man-made object ever. Its closest approach to the sun will send the spacecraft speeding along at a record-breaking 450,000 miles per hour. "That's fast enough to get from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C., in one second," NASA added.
届时，帕克太阳能探测器将创造历史，成为有史以来最快的人造物体。它最接近太阳的时候将以创记录的45万英里每小时的速度飞行。NASA补充说:“这足以在一秒钟内从费城到达华盛顿特区。”
Exposing the sun's secrets
揭露太阳的秘密
The then-named Solar Probe Plus, seen here in April 2017, is constructed in the cleanroom at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. (Photo: NASA)
In addition to sending a spacecraft into uncharted, scorching territory above a star, NASA also has a series of scientific objectives to accomplish. These include a study of the causes behind the sun's wildly different temperatures (i.e., an atmospheric temperature range of 3.5 million F vs. a surface temperature of "only" 10,000 degrees F) and the forces behind its solar wind and energetic particles that impact Earth and the solar system.
除了向一颗恒星上方未知的、灼热的区域发射航天器外，NASA还需要完成一系列的科学目标。其中包括对太阳温度差异巨大的原因的研究。在美国，大气温度范围为350万华氏度，而表面温度“仅”为1万华氏度)，以及太阳风和高能粒子背后影响地球和太阳系的力量。
"There are a few major mysteries with the sun and the solar wind," SPP project scientist Nicola Fox told Vice. "One is that the corona — the atmosphere that you see around the Sun during a solar eclipse — is actually hotter than the surface of the sun. So, that kind of defies the laws of physics. It just shouldn't happen."
SPP项目的科学家尼古拉·福克斯告诉Vice:“关于太阳和太阳风有几个主要的谜团。”“一个是日冕——你在日食期间看到的围绕太阳的大气——实际上比太阳表面更热。这就违背了物理定律。这是不应该发生的。”
NASA researchers hope the data gained from this mission will not only enable a greater understanding of how stars like our sun work, but also provide answers that might better protect against potentially catastrophic solar storms.
美国国家航空航天局的研究人员希望，从这次任务中获得的数据不仅能更好地了解像我们的太阳这样的恒星是如何工作的，而且还能提供可能更好地防止潜在的灾难性太阳风暴的答案。
"Many of the systems we in the modern world rely on — our telecommunications, GPS, satellites and power grids — could be disrupted for an extended period of time if a large solar storm were to happen today," Justin C. Kasper, principal investigator at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, told Popular Mechanics. "Solar Probe Plus will help us predict and manage the impact of space weather on society."
“在现代世界中，我们所依赖的许多系统--我们的电信、gps、卫星和电网--如果发生大太阳风暴，可能会中断很长一段时间。今天，史密森天体物理天文台的首席研究员贾斯丁·卡斯珀告诉《大众力学》。”太阳探测器加号将帮助我们预测和管理空间天气对地球的影响。”
