NASA spacecraft will aim straight for sun next year

[Buster's Uncle]

NASA spacecraft will aim straight for sun next year
Associated Press
By Marcia Dunn, ap aerospace writer  ·CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — May 31, 2017, 11:02 AM ET






A NASA spacecraft will aim straight for the sun next year.

The space agency announced the red-hot mission Wednesday at the University of Chicago.

Scheduled to launch in summer 2018, the Solar Probe Plus will fly within 4 million miles of the sun's surface — right into the solar atmosphere. It will be subjected to brutal heat and radiation like no other man-made structure before.

The purpose is to study the sun's outer atmosphere and better understand how stars like ours work.

The announcement came during a ceremony honoring astrophysicist Eugene Parker, professor emeritus at the University of Chicago.


http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/nasa-spacecraft-aim-straight-sun-year-47745535