The US space agency (NASA) announced the death of American astrophysicist Eugene Parker, at the age of 94.
Parker, a specialist in the sun, was the first to develop a theory regarding the existence of the solar wind and was distinguished by his outstanding abilities in applied mathematics, and he was considered one of the most prominent pioneers in the field of solar physics, which is the study of the sun and its system.
The official at the university to which the late scientist belonged noted that “his vision of the sun and the solar system was far ahead of its time.”
Dean of the Faculty of Physics at the University of Chicago, Angela Olento, was referring to his 1958 paper that described for the first time, using advanced calculations, the phenomenon of the solar wind, which is a continuous flow of particles originating from the Sun, a finding that was initially rejected.
However, Parker’s conclusions in his study were confirmed in 1962 by direct observation of the solar wind by a NASA probe. It has become established for scientists today that the solar wind sweeps all the planets in the solar system, protecting them from dangerous radiation.
Parker, who received a number of honors, became a professor emeritus at the University of Chicago. The Parker probe, named following him and launched in 2018, succeeded in approaching the sun in an unprecedented way, and transmitted to researchers a large amount of data that contributed to a number of discoveries, especially regarding space weather.
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