Eugene Parker, a pioneering American astrophysicist whose mathematical prediction that charged particles streamed from stars in a photo voltaic wind was met with disbelief earlier than he was in the end vindicated, has died aged 94, NASA mentioned on Wednesday. Parker was hailed as a visionary who laid the groundwork for the sphere of heliophysics, the science of understanding the Solar and its interactions with Earth and the photo voltaic system, together with house climate.
In 2018, Parker turned the primary individual to witness the launch of a spacecraft bearing his title, NASA’s Parker Photo voltaic Probe.
“We have been saddened to be taught the information that one of many nice scientific minds and leaders of our time has handed,” mentioned NASA Administrator Invoice Nelson in an announcement. Parker died Tuesday, in response to the College of Chicago, his long-time educational house.
“Gene Parker was a legendary determine in our discipline — his imaginative and prescient of the Solar and the photo voltaic system was approach forward of his time,” added Angela Olinto, dean of the Bodily Sciences Division on the College of Chicago.
Born on June 10, 1927 in Michigan, Parker earned a bachelor’s diploma in physics from Michigan State College and a PhD from Caltech, then taught on the College of Utah earlier than settling at UChicago in 1955.
He started finding out the temperature of the Solar’s corona, and his calculations confirmed the situations ought to produce a supersonic stream of particles off the floor.
The thought was initially met with scepticism — even ridicule.
‘Utter nonsense’
“The primary reviewer on the paper mentioned, ‘Nicely, I’d counsel that Parker go to the library and browse up on the topic earlier than he tries to put in writing a paper about it, as a result of that is utter nonsense,'” Parker informed UChicago Information in 2018.
His concept solely noticed publication within the Astrophysical Journal when then editor and future Nobel prize winner Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar realized he couldn’t discover a flaw in Parker’s math, and overrode the objections of each reviewers.
The speculation was proved appropriate in 1962 when NASA’s Mariner II spacecraft, which flew to Venus, encountered the stream of particles, known as the photo voltaic wind.
Scientists now know that photo voltaic wind blankets all of the planets, defending them from dangerous radiation, but additionally at instances disrupting communications right here on Earth when photo voltaic flares happen.
Parker additionally proposed the concept of “nanoflares” — small photo voltaic explosions that happen all around the Solar — that are accountable for its superheated corona. The corona is hotter than the floor itself, a proven fact that could not be defined by recognized physics on the time.
He went on to review cosmic rays, the magnetic fields of galaxies and myriad different subjects, and received quite a few accolades together with the US Nationwide Medal of Science, the Kyoto Prize, the Crafoord Prize and the American Bodily Society Medal for Distinctive Achievement in Analysis.
“Anybody who knew Dr Parker, knew that he was a visionary,” mentioned Nicola Fox, director of NASA’s heliophysics division.
NASA’s Parker Photo voltaic Probe, named after Parker, was launched in 2018, circling the Solar nearer than any spacecraft had beforehand ventured.
It has already despatched again troves of beneficial information resulting in new discoveries about house climate and the detection of a long-theorised zone the place the Solar’s radiation vaporizes all cosmic mud.
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