Recently, the Parker Solar Probe completed its 11th mission to fly by the sun. Most of the data will be transmitted back to Earth from March 30 to May 1, providing more useful solar observation data for humans. Although Parker was still heading towards the sun, Parker had left. 
Parker proposes “solar wind,” image from University of Chicago
On March 15, local time, American astrophysicist Eugene Parker died at his home in Chicago at the age of 94. At the age of 31, Parker predicted the existence of the solar wind, subverting the previous understanding of the sun. His achievements in astrophysics are so impressive that the Parker Solar Probe is named after Parker. The solar probe was the first spacecraft in NASA history to be named after a living person, and Parker was the first scientist to witness the launch of a spacecraft named after him into space.
Solar wind ‘prophecy’ confirmed
When it comes to Parker, you have to mention the ‘solar wind’. Parker was the first astrophysicist to predict the existence of the “solar wind”, and his scientific spirit allowed the solar wind to “blow” to the scientific community and was finally confirmed.
The solar wind is the stream of charged particles that are emitted from the Sun at supersonic speeds of 1 million miles per hour (about 1 million kilometers per hour). The solar wind is constant and triggers magnetic storms and auroras on Earth. When the Sun throws out coronal mass ejections (CMEs) these huge particles, the solar wind can get very violent. Coronal mass ejections are the largest and most violent energy release processes in the solar system, and these events have the potential to cause electrical surges (i.e. transient overpowering) on Earth’s electrical grids, resulting in widespread blackouts.
A schematic diagram of the Parker Solar Probe approaching the sun, pictured by NASA
In the mid-1950s, Parker first proposed the existence of a “solar wind”, but almost no one believed it at the timehis discovery.
It is reported that the static solar atmosphere theory proposed by scholar Chapman was the mainstream view at that time. The theory holds that, on the one hand, the solar atmosphere is affected by the outward expansion force formed by the ultra-high temperature of the sun, and on the other hand, it is affected by the sun’s own gravitational force, and the two forces are balanced, forming a static state of the solar atmosphere.
In 1958, Parker published his research results of mathematically deriving the existence of “solar wind” in The Astrophysical Journal, first proposed and named “Solar Wind” solar wind”. This upended Chapman’s static solar atmosphere theory and was widely questioned by the scientific community, including the paper’s reviewers and editors of The Astrophysical Journal.
Faced with negative reviews from reviewers, Parker told the editor of The Astrophysical Journal, Subramanyan Chandrase, an astrophysicist at the University of Chicago Card filed a complaint. Parker believes that the reviewers did not point out any errors in his calculations. In Parker’s mathematical derivation, he described how particles flow from the sun just as water spews out from a circular fountain.
” Parker would be happy if people pointed out errors in his calculations. But he was unhappy when people accepted popular scientific hypotheses without question. said Michael S. Turner, Parker’s colleague at the University of Chicago.
Although Chandrasekhar, who later won the Nobel Prize, disagreed with Parker’s research conclusions, he overruled the reviewers’ opinions, and the “Solar Wind” paper finally be published.
Four years later, NASA’s Mariner 2 spacecraft observed high-energy particles traveling through interstellar space on its way to Venus, confirming Parker’s The “solar wind” speculation.
Solar Probe named after “Parker”
Thomas Zerbuchen joined NASA in 2016. At the time, a mission called Solar Probe Plus, which NASA had been working on for years, was designed to repeatedly approach the sun for detection.
As Deputy Director of NASA’s Science Mission DirectorateRen’s Zerbuchen didn’t like the name, so he wrote to the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), asking the institute to recommend a character to rename the mission. The final answer was “Eugene Parker”.
NASA has never named an aircraft after a living person before. But NASA acting administrator Robert Lightfoot approved the decision. Zerbuchen eventually called Parker and asked for his opinion. “It will be my honor,” Parker said. 
Parker probe paired with a three-stage rocket engine, image via NASA, July 2018
a few months later , Parker met Parker Solar Probe at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL).
In August 2018, Parker and his family traveled to Florida to watch the launch of the Parker Solar Probe.
“Parker is always low-key,” Zerbuchen said. “I’ve only seen him cry twice.” Once when Parker stood in front of the rocket and saw the rocket With his name on it, another time after Parker’s launch. 
In the early morning of August 12, 2018, Eugene Parker watched the The launch of Parker Solar Probe, with Nicola Fox, director of NASA’s Heliophysics Division standing behind him, pictured by NASA
Nicola Fox, Director of NASA’s Heliophysics Division in charge of the Parker mission, who showed Parker the Parker Solar Probe ‘s early data, that’s a picture of the solar wind, with blurry particles on one side of the sun. When she saw the photos, she described Parker’s eyes lit up, “He’s just very, very excited because this task is going to do all the science he’s always wanted to do.study research. “
Pioneers in Heliophysics
Parker didn’t set out to study the sun at first, but at the University of Chicago he worked with John Simpson on cosmic rays . While high-energy cosmic rays come from distant galaxies, they believe that collisions of these rays near Earth could reveal the space material between planets in our solar system. This in turn leads to solar physics.
Later, Parker turned to other research problems, including how the sun produces its magnetic field, the magnetic fields of galaxies, and the structure of magnetized shock waves. His research does not rely on breakthroughs in 20th century physics, such as quantum mechanics or Einstein’s general theory of relativity, but rather on more traditional physics, such as those designed by James Clark Maxwell in the 1860s using Maxwell’s equations to describe the behavior of electric and magnetic fields.
Parker also investigates another unsolved mystery of the sun. The outermost layer of the sun’s atmosphere, the corona, has a temperature of more than 1 million degrees Celsius, and he believes that a large number of solar flares that are too small to observe are “heating” the corona. Fox remembers the first time she met Parker after Parker launched, “He nudged me with his elbow and asked very calmly, ‘Did you find the nanoflare?'”
In 2020, scientists looked at data from two other NASA solar observatories, believing they may have observed nanoflares, as well as exploring how energy is converted into heat. Currently, this is one of several hypotheses to explain the ultra-hot corona. 
The photo of the sun in the picture was taken by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. The red line indicates that the Parker Solar Probe passed through The path of the sun’s surface, the picture comes from NASA
and according to NASA’s plan, Parker will eventually reach within 4 million miles (about 6.2 million kilometers) of the sun’s surface in December 2024 at a speed of 430,000 miles per hour The place. As Parker gets closer to the sun, it may receive signals from nanoflares in the future, which may once again prove Parker’s point of view.correct.
“The field of heliophysics owes a lot to Eugene Parker,” said Zobchen, “naming the solar probe Parker. To commemorate his work is one of the proudest achievements of my career. My work, my passion for science, and my drive to keep exploring are all deeply influenced by this great man.”
“Although Parker is no longer alive, his discoveries and legacy will live on forever,” Fox said.