If you’re looking for doors, you won’t find any here today. Thursday Doors is on a break until January 9th. However, Just-Jot-It-January is going strong, and today’s prompt is slingshot by Liz at valleyofthetrolls.blog
Those of you who follow this blog know that I am a big fan of space travel and exploration. On Christmas Eve, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe made its closest pass by the sun, and became the fastest human-made object ever — 430,000 miles per hour (692,016 kph). It reached this speed by making several orbits around the planet Venus, using that planet’s gravity in a sort of slingshot effect. Ironically, initial orbits around Venus were designed to slow the probe so it could better study the sun.
OK, that’s fast, but what about cool? Well, the Parker Solar Probe is flying through some pretty hot places.
Close to the Sun, the spacecraft relies on a carbon foam shield to protect it from the extreme heat in the upper solar atmosphere called the corona, which can exceed 1 million degrees Fahrenheit. The shield was designed to reach temperatures of 2,600 degrees Fahrenheit — hot enough to melt steel — while keeping the instruments behind it shaded at a comfortable room temperature. In the hot but low-density corona, the spacecraft’s shield is expected to warm to 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit.
Nicky Fox – NASA Associate Administrator, Science Mission Directorate
That’s it for me this week. I have packaged a few images which I think are all from NASA, into a small gallery. If you want to know more about the mission. I encourage you to watch the video below.
The images in the gallery are not mine and not a uniform size. So, I allowed the gallery to crop them for a better fit. If you want to see the full images, open the gallery by clicking on any one photo.
And, of course, since these are still on sale…
No Facilities 
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