NASA is expected to make an announcement about the agency’s first mission to fly directly into our sun’s atmosphere on May 31. The mission, Solar Probe Plus, is scheduled to launch in the summer of 2018.
Jonathan Lunine is the director of the Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Science at Cornell University and has served on a number of advisory and strategic planning committees for NASA. He expects we'll see incredible detail of the dynamic solar atmosphere.
Bio: http://astro.cornell.edu/members/jonathan-lunine.html
Lunine says:
“Solar Probe Plus will pass within four million miles of the Sun – that's almost eight times closer to the Sun than the orbit of Mercury – and provide incredible detail on the dynamic solar atmosphere.
“Solar Probe Plus will fly closer to the Sun than the distance at which even close-in exoplanets orbit their own Suns, giving us unprecedented information on the kinds of environments these planets experience.”
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