Researcher discusses the launch of the Parker Solar Probe
(PHYSorg.com Space & Earth)

On Saturday, NASA launched a bold mission to fly directly into the sun`s atmosphere, with a spacecraft named the Parker Solar Probe, after solar astrophysicist Eugene Parker. The incredibly resilient vessel, vaguely shaped like a lightbulb the size of a small car, was launched early in the morning from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Its trajectory will aim straight for the sun, where the probe will come closer to the solar surface than any other spacecraft in history.