A space probe that aims to be the first to \u201ctouch the sun\u201d launched early Sunday morning, marking the next step in an effort that scientists say has been 60 years in the making.<\/p>\n
NASA\u2019s Parker Solar Probe blasted off from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Sunday, Aug. 12 at 3:31 a.m. EDT. A last-minute technical glitch led NASA to\u00a0delay the launch, which was initially planned for early on Saturday morning.<\/p>\n
The $1.5-billion, car-sized spacecraft is designed to\u00a0provide a close look at the sun\u2019s atmosphere\u00a0\u2014 what astronomers call the corona \u2014 to answer enduring questions about this ultra-hot region of our nearest star.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll be going where no spacecraft has dared go before \u2014 within the corona of a star,\u201d project scientist Nicola Fox of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab, said in a written statement. \u201cWith each orbit, we\u2019ll be seeing new regions of the sun\u2019s atmosphere and learning things about stellar mechanics that we\u2019ve wanted to explore for decades.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over the course of its seven-year mission, the probe will orbit the sun 24 times, each time sweeping through the corona, where the temperature is a blistering 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit (almost 1,400 degrees Celsius). The spacecraft and its suite of delicate instruments will be protected from the sun’s extreme heat by a\u00a0carbon fiber heat shield.<\/p>\n
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NBC<\/p>\n
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