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(light music)

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- Hi, I'm Ellen Stofan,

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the John and Adrienne Mars Director

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of the Smithsonian's National
Air and Space Museum.

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I'm Doctor E and we're
here for another episode

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of E.Z. Science.

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- Hey, and I'm Thomas Zurbuchen,

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the Associate Administrator for Science

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at NASA also known as Doctor Z.

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- We're here today to talk
a little bit about something

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that people don't
probably think of as being

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that important in their lives

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but if for example you use some app

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to help you get to where
you were going today,

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you're actually relying on
NASA understanding the sun.

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- So we're looking at our
star, our favorite star,

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the sun and we see that the
star is a magnetic star.

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You see as the sun is
boiling at the surface

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because it's so hot it's
carrying with it magnetic fields.

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And like little arcs they're there

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and they're interacting with
each other liberating energy,

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UV energy of the type that
of course burns your skin,

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an x-ray like you see at the doctor.

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That kind of radiation
is coming from the sun

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and it's spreading around causing

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what we call space weather.

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Of course, as it's heating up,
that atmosphere, the corona,

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it's also blowing away it's atmosphere.

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It cannot hold on to it
and it's filling the space

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between the planets.

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- Now that space weather

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is what can disrupt our
communication satellites,

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our GPS satellites.

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For the astronauts up
on the space station,

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they even have to worry
about what's going on

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on the surface of the sun.

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- Exactly right and when they're leaving

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to go to the moon or to Mars,

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that is even more important

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because now we're away

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from the magnetic protection of our Earth.

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- Now NASA has a lot of
spacecrafts studying the sun,

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and they get as close
to the sun as they can,

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but right now we have
a spacecraft up there

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that's doing something pretty special.

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Can you tell us about
the Parker Solar Probe?

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- It's really the first
spacecraft to touch the sun,

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to fly through that corona,
through that atmosphere,

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and sample it in a way
that we've never seen.

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So in fact it just
completed its third orbit

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by the sun and it's collecting data

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and sending it back to Earth.

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So we're learning about this atmosphere

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in a way we've never seen before just now.

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- I think a lot of people don't recognize

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that when NASA does
things like go to a planet

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or get really close to the sun,

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we have to push technology in ways

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that you just don't normally have to do

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which then spins off and
benefits us right here on Earth.

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- Absolutely.

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A lot of these materials
that are being developed

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right here for Parker Solar
Probe and we're developed

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in the last decade or so are materials

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that are very much
applicable in other systems

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like energy systems

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or even fire fighting type of applications

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where those kind of
materials matter for example.

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- Now we did get a question
that someone sent in

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to E.Z. Science, so don't forget

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about sending your questions
in for future episodes.

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Parker has gathered some information

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about why the sun's corona
is hotter than its surface.

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Tell us a bit about what
it's found in its first year.

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- What we're learning about
is that the near corona

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like right down there by the sun

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is a lot more turbulent,
a lot more interactive

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than we thought before.

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- This is a spacecraft

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that was named for a living scientist

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and can you tell us why we did that?

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- Eugene Parker is so important
for that entire field.

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He's the guy who predicted
that the solar atmosphere

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would be blown off into
super sonic stream,

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the solar wind.

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Highly controversial and
of course he was right.

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In fact, there is something
like 35 spacecraft

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in all of NASA's inventory
that are dealing with things

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that Parker predicted
and I will never forget

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how Parker looked and his family

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when the rocket went into the sky with him

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seeing his spacecraft leave the Earth.

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I'm going to ask you the second question

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that is how does the research
in space help prepare humans

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on a journey to future Artemis missions

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to the moon, Mars, and beyond?

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- So the more that we can monitor the sun,

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the more that we can understand

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and predict what's happening at the sun,

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the better we can do with
protecting the astronauts.

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Now if we know there's a solar flares

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of particles coming towards
them, they can go into areas

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that are shielded.

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And those are some of the
technologies we work on

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is how do we protect astronauts
from this space radiation

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both from the sun but also
from galactic cosmic rays.

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We're gonna be able to do that research

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even better on the surface of the moon

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outside of our magnetic field

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where as Thomas said the astronauts

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are much more vulnerable.

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Now Thomas, some of the
surface science from Artemis

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is also gonna help us
eventually get to Mars.

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- Of course.

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As we're sampling the surface of the moon,

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what we also will be able to do

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is look at the components
that are in there,

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especially water, that
we may be able to use

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both on the moon and Mars over time

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to live off but also make fuel out of it.

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So it's really exciting.

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- Well I'm afraid we're out of time

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and thank you, this
has been incredibly fun

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to talk about our favorite star.

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- And I really want to encourage everybody

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to send questions again,

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questions that we'll answer