What do you think that How much heat would the Parker Solar Probe experience when it is closest to the Sun ?
To
answer this question, one has to differentiate between the concepts of temperature and
heat. In space, the temperature can be thousands of degrees without delivering significant
heat to an object close by.Temperature means how fast the particles are moving, whereas
heat means the total amount of energy the particles transfer to an object they encounter.
Particles may be moving fast (that is high temperature), but if there are very few of them,
an object encountering them will not experience much heat. Compared to the visible
surface of the Sun (photosphere), the average density of particles in the corona is so low
that it will have very few of them. Hence, the spacecraft will experience a temperature of
only about 1,400 degrees Celsius.
However, even this is too high and to withstand it the Parker Probe makes use of
a heat shield made up of an 11.5-cm-thick carbon composite foam material sandwiched
between two carbon fibre sheets of 2.4 metres and painted white to reflect sunlight.
The shield is tested to withstand a temperature of 1,650 degrees Celsius, keeping the
instruments safe at a temperature of 30 degrees Celsius.
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