How Did the Spacecraft Going to the Sun Not Melt at 1 Million Degrees?

The spacecraft named “Parker Solar” will launch in 2021. He fulfilled his mission to “touch the sun”. He made a dive into the Sun’s upper atmosphere.

So how did it survive temperatures of 1 million degrees? Is it really possible for him to do something like this without melting?

The Sun’s upper atmosphere is above 1 million degrees.

The temperature of this layer called “Corona” is hundreds of times higher than even the highest melting point of any metal.

The material of the sun-touching probe is made of lightweight carbon foam, covered with a high-tech shield that does a really good job of staying cool. However, even this shield can withstand temperatures of 1 million degrees. It’s not strong enough to withstand it.

We need to mix some physics here.

It is possible to obtain temperature (a property of matter) without heat (the process of transferring energy between two things with different temperatures)! The temperature depends on the heat source and the thing being heated. Two substances with the same temperature It doesn’t always have to cause the same amount of heat.

For example, imagine you are cooking a meal in the oven. It does not burn when you put your hand into the oven, but it burns when you touch the metal or glass inside the oven because air, less dense than metal.

Now that we have the information, let’s get back to our main topic.

Particles in the Sun’s corona are few and far between. Its density is almost less than that of the Earth’s atmosphere. 10 trillion times less. So when the spacecraft collides with a particle, it cannot cause heating to the melting temperature of the metal.

That’s why Parker Solar didn’t even warm up to more than 1,400 degrees during its several-hour journey through the Sun’s atmosphere. Even the interior of the vehicle up to 30 degrees it got cold. About the average summer temperature! Who knows, maybe one day we can travel to the Sun in such a spacecraft…

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