Professor Parker's "Smokin' Hot Lil' Probe" Nears Perihelion, Again -- Second Dive, Past The Sun...

This week, through Friday night, NASA's Parker Solar probe is once again dipping very close to our local star.

All instruments are up and running flawlessly -- we dare mighty things, so that we might learn even. . . mightier ones. Here is the latest NASA update -- and a bit:

. . . .Parker Solar Probe begins the second solar encounter phase of its mission, culminating in its closest approach to the Sun, called perihelion, on April 4. . . [fully ending on April 10, when the lil' craft repoints its antenna -- back toward Earth, to transmit the data acquired -- all it learned, on this second plunge.]

During this solar encounter phase. . . the spacecraft’s four suites of science instruments are fully operational and storing science data collected from within the Sun’s corona. As designed, Parker Solar Probe will be out of contact with Earth for several days during the solar encounter. This allows the spacecraft to prioritize keeping its heat shield, called the Thermal Protection System, oriented towards the Sun, rather than pointing its transmitter towards Earth. Science data from this second solar encounter phase will downlink to Earth over several weeks later in spring 2019. . . .

And a lil' poetry, repeated, as we walk off, into the warm spring sunshine, this Tuesday morning (but no Icaras event shall befall us, or her -- this time!):

Landscape with the Fall of Icarus

According to Brueghel when Icarus fell it was spring		sweating in the sun that melted the wings wax
a farmer was ploughing his field the whole pageantry		Unsignificantly off the coast there was
of the year was awake tingling near		a splash quite unnoticed this was Icarus drowning
the edge of the sea concerned only with itself		-- William Carlos Williams (1883 to 1963)

नमस्ते