Amateur Astronomers Association of Princeton (AAAP) Monthly Meeting

One of the key discoveries leading up to the space age was the solar wind, which permeates interplanetary space throughout the heliosphere. Dr. Cuesta will review the history of remote observations of such solar dynamics. He will discuss the impact of space physics research involving the investigation of space weather with the goal of predicting extreme solar events, which cause large disruptions of the solar wind. Coronal mass ejections, for example, usually carry with them enhanced particle populations accelerated to very high energy. These high energy particles and mass ejections of plasma sometimes ram into the Earth, causing power-grids to shut down, increasing radiation exposure to people in mid-flight, and communication disruptions. The Parker Solar Probe mission is the project that aims to answer many of the unsolved questions in field of space physics, such as sources of particle acceleration and their mechanisms, the main driver(s) of the solar wind, and the coronal heating problem. Dr. Cuesta’s presentation gives some of the first results from this mission and some current topics of ongoing research in the Space Physics Group here at Princeton University.