Express & Star

Nasa wants to fly your name to the sun on a groundbreaking space probe

The US space agency is inviting members of the public to include their names on a microchip aboard its Parker Solar Probe.

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Nasa will launch a vehcile towards the sun (Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Nasa)

You may be able to fly your name to the sun on a groundbreaking probe Nasa is sending into the star’s atmosphere.

The US space agency is inviting members of the public to include their names on a microchip aboard its Parker Solar Probe launching in July.

According to Nasa, the probe will “touch the Sun” as it flies within 3.9 million miles of the star’s surface into the solar atmosphere, which is known as the corona.

Parker Solar Probe.
You can send your name to the sun, via a microchip installed on NASA’s upcoming Parker Solar Probe mission (Nasa)

The spacecraft is expected to launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida on July 31.

Nasa began testing its new probe earlier this year ahead of its launch this summer.

It will collect vital information about the life of stars including solar flares.

Flare GIF by NASA - Find & Share on GIPHY

The probe, which is expected to come within the orbit of Mercury, will be more than seven times closer to the Sun than any spacecraft to date.

The last time a spacecraft came close to the star’s surface was in 1976, when Helios 2 achieved perihelion – point of the orbit at which it was closest to the Sun – at 27 million miles.

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