Dr. Eugene Parker (seated), a pioneer in heliophysics, watches the liftoff of the mission named in his honor.
Dr. Eugene Parker (seated), a pioneer in heliophysics, watched as NASA’s Parker Solar Probe launched at 3:31 a.m. EDT on Sunday, Aug. 12, 2018. This was the first agency mission named for a living person.
In 2021, the mission performed the closest-ever observations of a star as it traveled through the Sun’s atmosphere, called the corona. The probe relies on measurements and imaging to revolutionize our understanding of the corona and the Sun-Earth connection.
Image Credit: NASA/Glenn Benson