Touching the Sun: Parker Solar Probe

Students follow Parker Solar Probe from its 2018 launch through seven Venus gravity assists to its record pass about 3.8 million miles above the Sun, learning why reaching the Sun is hard and how the heat shield protects the spacecraft.

Grades 5-8About 15 minutes of narrated flight, plus discussion stops8 stops

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What students will see and do

Students fly from Earth to Venus, into the Sun's glow, out to the live position of Parker Solar Probe, up to an overview of the solar system, and back home to Earth. Aetherion pauses three times: at Venus (why borrow gravity instead of carrying fuel), at the Sun (high temperature versus actual heat in the thin corona), and at the spacecraft (why the probe is fastest closest to the Sun).

Learning objectives

• Explain why a spacecraft launched from Earth must lose sideways speed to fall toward the Sun.
• Describe how repeated Venus flybys shrank Parker Solar Probe's orbit.
• Identify how the heat shield, self-steering, and water-cooled solar panels protect the spacecraft.
• Use the idea of gravity to explain why the probe moves fastest at its closest approach.

NGSS connections

Stops on this journey

1. Leaving Earth in a Hurry
2. Braking with Venus (discussion stop)
3. Into the Corona (discussion stop)
4. A Shield Against the Heat
5. A Shrinking Orbit
6. Record Closest Pass
7. The Fastest Machine Ever (discussion stop)
8. Why It Matters at Home

Vocabulary

• corona
• solar wind
• gravity assist
• heat shield
• orbit
• close approach
• space weather
• aurora