Mission to the sun

NASA has announced plans to launch the first-ever spacecraft mission to the sun within the next decade, hoping to solve a number of solar mysteries. Astronomers have been talking about trying to visit the sun since 1958, when a panel of scientists recommended studying the feasibility of such a journey.

The car-size spacecraft, dubbed Solar Probe Plus, will be outfitted with a heat shield designed to withstand temperatures as high as 1,400 degrees Celsius (2,550 Fahrenheit). The mission will seek to learn why the sun’s atmosphere is so much hotter than its surface and how the behavior of our nearest star affects weather on Earth.

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