A Spacecraft Touched The Sun! Why Didn't It Melt?

The Parker Solar Probe created history by becoming the first spacecraft to touch the Sun. It passed through the Sun’s upper atmosphere, known as the corona. Temperatures in the solar corona can soar up to a million degrees Celsius. It’s the hottest region of the solar atmosphere and is about 15 times hotter than the surface of the Sun. But the critical question is, why didn’t the Parker Solar Probe melt when it touched the Sun? No metal can withstand such high temperatures. So how did Parker manage to survive after plunging into the solar atmosphere? How is it still functioning efficiently after going through such an extreme environment?

The answer is a combination of the physics of the solar corona and the marvelous engineering of Parker.

[BigKandRtv]

It's amazing what these space agencies can do for just about the cost of one F-22.

[BarbaraKeigher]

Thank you for also giving us the Fahrenheit temperatures! At almost 80 years old, I did not learn the Celsius way of measuring....so thank you again...so few are so kind!

[skybot]

Probes and satellites never cease to amaze me.👽

[TheOuterDrive]

Me :" You should never look at the sun!! "
Parker: " Hold my Beer"...

[elliec]

When I would see those ships on Star Trek get too close to a star, I would have no understanding as to how it was even possible for them to do it without melting, but if we already have the technology to pull it off NOW in the 2020's, it doesn't seem at all impossible anymore...

[williampapadopoulos]

If it flew REALLY REALLY fast through the corona it wouldn’t get burned because it’s kind of like passing your finger through the flame of a match or a candle. If the flame doesn’t have the time to actually heat it up to a temperature that would burn you, you can pass your finger through multiple times without even feeling the heat, let alone getting burned!

[ninohanselakol]

The most amazing part of this video was the camera who took a video to that spacecraft. It also not melted

[MyDreamLife]

It would have been easier for the probe if they had landed at night.

[coralie]

This is pretty nifty and what Parker can do, gotta love the Sun and what she can do!! Great video again, SOU, thanks!!

[dsvephs]

But why do people say "it touched the sun" if it's still at 4 million miles away?

[Entity_BlackRed]

Parker Solar Probe!! I remember even since 2016 when it took off!! Now it finally touched the sun after 7 years, AWESOME!!

[thesnare]

I always thought temperature was a measure of heat, but I have heard that what you feel when you put your hand in a heated oven (not against one of the sides or the grills to hold food) is called heat flux

[georgejones]

I imagine it's something similar to Leindenfrost Effect. The cold of void of space freezes a portion of the outer part of the craft, and it comes into contact with the extreme heat of the sun.

[SomeInspirationPublications]

Brilliant explanation! Thank you. Keep it up Parker!

[and]

Even the sun couldn't stop the Corona :(

[tomatomoussin]

What amazes me is that the solar probe being so close to the sun doesn’t get affected at all by the IMP waves burst during sun flare’s, especially trough the magnetic field.

[ceciliogarcia]

When you have spent most of your life, living in a little cottage in the woods, you will always be amazed at what man can do.

[danser_theplayer]

Well I could explain the corona being hotter than the sun by a lighter example. When you light a lighter the bottom part of the flame is colder than the space above that flame, all heat will eventually end up at the very top but the gas needs a "runway" to burn, so the most heated part will be the one where all gas has been burned.

[DiomedesDominguez]

At 1:10 there is a jump and felt so unnatural that I needed to go back 5 times.

[markAD]

It’s amazing what people can create like this probe. Ingenious. I’m fascinated by the visual spectacle and physical processes of the sun. It’s beautiful and mesmerizing to watch. Stars created all the elements and essentially all life as well.