The First Mission to the Nearest Star

Parker Solar Probe will be a historic mission, flying into the Sun's atmosphere (or corona) for the first time. LPL Professor Joe Giacalone is Co-Investigator for the Integrated Science Investigation of the Sun (IS☉IS) instrument. Coming closer to the Sun than any previous spacecraft, Solar Probe Plus will employ a combination of in situ measurements and imaging to achieve the mission's primary scientific goal: to understand how the Sun's corona is heated and how the solar wind is accelerated. Parker Solar Probe will revolutionize our knowledge of the origin and evolution of the solar wind.