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.

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