A study just published in Physical Review Letters announces the first transit of a space probe through the Sun's corona.
On 29 April, NASA's Parker Solar Probe transited less than 13 million kilometers from the Sun's photosphere, providing evidence that it has penetrated crossed the region of the solar atmosphere known as the solar corona where the magnetic field energetically prevails over the solar plasma.
This news comes at the same time as the start of the nominal mission of the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter probe and the release of the special issue of "Astronomy & Astrophysics" in which the first scientific papers obtained with data acquired during the cruise phase of the probe are published. The issue includes three papers produced with data from the Metis coronagraph coordinated by Marco Romoli, professor of the Department of Physics and Astronomu of the University of Florence.
Parker Solar Probe Article:
Metis Articles:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202140980 Romoli et al.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202142407 Andretta et al.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202140930 Grimani et al.