Eugene Parker, a pioneering American astrophysicist who developed a mathematical model that identified the flow of charged particles from the Sun known as the solar wind, has died at age 94, NASA said on Wednesday.
Parker, who in 2018 became the first person to witness the launch of a spacecraft bearing his name, is considered a visionary who laid the foundations for the field of heliophysics, the science that addresses the interactions of the Sun with the Earth and the Solar System. , including space weather.
“We are saddened to learn that one of the great scientific minds and leaders of our time has passed away,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement.
Parker died on Tuesday, according to the University of Chicago, where he had long worked.
“Gene Parker was a legendary figure in our field: his view of the Sun and the Solar System was ahead of his time,” added Angela Olinto, dean of the Division of Physical Sciences at the University of Chicago.
The astrophysicist was born on June 10, 1927 in Michigan, he holds a bachelor’s degree in physics from Michigan State University and a Ph.D. by the California Institute of Technology.
He later taught at the University of Utah before settling in 1955 at the University of Chicago, his long home.
He began to study the temperature of the Sun’s corona and his calculations showed that the conditions should release a supersonic flow of particles out of the surface.
Initially, the idea was met with skepticism, including jokes.
“Absolute Nonsense”
“The first reviewer of the article said, ‘Well, I would suggest that Parker go to the library and read up on the topic before trying to write an article about it, because this is absolute nonsense,” Parker himself told the UChicago News in 2018.
His idea was only published by the Astrophysical Journal when its then editor and future Nobel Prize winner, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, realized he couldn’t find any errors in Parker’s math and overrode the objections of two scientific reviewers.
The theory was proven correct in 1962 when NASA’s Mariner II spacecraft encountered such a stream of particles or solar wind.
Scientists now know that the solar wind covers all planets, shielding them from harmful radiation but also sometimes disrupting communications here on Earth when solar flares occur.
“Anyone who knew Dr. Parker knew he was a visionary,” said Nicola Fox, director of NASA’s heliophysics division.
He also proposed the idea of ​​”nanolabared”, small explosions that occur in the Sun and are responsible for the corona to be hotter than the surface, something that could not be explained by the known physics at that time.
Parker went on to study cosmic rays, the magnetic fields of galaxies, and a range of other topics, and earned several recognitions, including the United States National Medal of Science, the Kyoto Prize, the Crafoord Prize, and the American Society of Science Medal. Physics for Outstanding Achievements in Research.
NASA’s Parker solar probe, named after Eugene Parker, launched in 2018 and orbited the Sun at a closer distance than any spacecraft that has previously ventured.
The spacecraft has already sent a wealth of valuable data to Earth that leads to new discoveries about space meteorology and the detection of a zone that has long been theorized about, where the Sun’s radiation vaporizes all the cosmic dust.
