Monday, October 06, 2025 at 3:30 pm

JILA auditorium

David Malaspina, CU Boulder

"There and Back Again: A Journey to the Sun "

Abstract:

Parker Solar Probe successfully completed its prime mission in 2025, measuring solar wind plasma in-situ as close as 8.8 solar radii (~0.04 AU) from the solar photosphere over a series of close-approach orbits. These close approaches to the Sun enable novel exploration of fundamental stellar processes, such as solar wind acceleration, solar wind heating, interplanetary dust destruction, and radial evolution of solar surface structure. These processes leave distinct signatures in near-Sun particle and field observations that allow us to untangle the physical mechanisms driving them. Further, travel through the extreme near-Sun environment has revealed a new regime of strong interactions between a spacecraft and its plasma environment. Insights gained from exploring the physics of these interactions have directly led to novel measurement capabilities on sounding rockets, small sats, lunar landers, and flagship space science missions. This talk focuses on advances in solar wind physics made over the course of the Parker Solar Probe mission, as well as on new space plasma measurement capabilities inspired by these studies.

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