On 12th August 2018, NASA made history when they launched the Parker Solar Probe – a robotic spacecraft – into space with the mission of making continuous probes into the outer corona of the Sun. This mission is the closest any man-made object has reached into the Sun’s atmosphere – in fact, the first to ‘touch’ the Sun!
This mission promises to revolutionize our understanding of the Sun and its physical phenomena. However, Man’s quest to understand the Sun started many centuries earlier in 1610. This infographic gives a historical timeline of our quest and the learnings at each stage.
Solar Wind and Corona Timeline:
Infographic by – National Aeronautics and Space Administration