Eugene Parker

1972–1988: Coronal heating and nanoflares A close-up of one of the loop brightenings. The frame on the far right is the most zoomed in, showing the putative nanoflare. Parker argued that random footpoint motions in the photosphere inevitably tangle coronal fields, making smooth equilibria topologically unattainable. The corona relaxes via ubiquitous current sheets where reconnection dissipates energy, supplying heat. Initial skepticism gave way to broader interest as stellar coronal X-rays were established; Parker then estimated the energy budget and introduced the nanoflare concept—many small events rather than single large releases. The field converged on a mixed picture: closed-loop regions likely dominated by current-sheet heating; open-field regions more wave-driven.

Parker Solar Probe In 1960, a Space Science Board report recommended a solar spacecraft mission to study the origins of solar wind, and another mission to the outer Solar System "to study the interaction of the heliosphere with the interstellar medium". In 2010, NASA approved the Solar Probe Plus mission; Parker was invited as an advisor.

In 2017, NASA renamed the Solar Probe Plus to Parker Solar Probe in Parker's honor, the first NASA spacecraft named after a living person. In October 2017, Parker visited the spacecraft at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. In 2018, Parker and his family traveled to Cape Canaveral to watch the PSP's launch.

Parker Solar Probe used repeated gravity assists from Venus to develop an eccentric orbit, approaching within 9.86 solar radii (6.9 million km or 4.3 million miles) from the center of the Sun. At its closest approach in 2024, its speed relative to the Sun was or 191 km/s (118.7 mi/s), which is 0.064% the speed of light. It is the fastest object ever built on Earth. PSP is the first spacecraft that entered the solar atmosphere, which was described by NASA as "touching the Sun". It was done when PSP passed the Alfven surface which marks the end of the solar atmosphere and beginning of the solar wind.

Personal life Parker met his future wife, Niesje, in Utah. Her family was from the Netherlands; she emigrated to the US after World War II. She had a degree in bacteriology. They married in 1954. In Chicago, Niesje got a job at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, and later became an Associate Director of Computing Services. His body was cremated, and half of the ashes buried near his log cabin in the woods. 1969: Henry Norris Russell Lectureship of the American Astronomical Society 1978: George Ellery Hale Prize, Solar Physics Division of the American Astronomical Society, first time this prize was awarded 1979: Chapman Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society 1989: National Medal of Science 1990: William Bowie Medal 1997: Bruce Medal 2003: James Clerk Maxwell Prize of the American Physical Society "For seminal contributions in plasma astrophysics, including predicting the solar wind, explaining the solar dynamo, formulating the theory of magnetic reconnection, and the instability which predicts the escape of the magnetic fields from the galaxy." 2010: Member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. 2017: NASA renamed its Solar Probe Plus mission to Parker Solar Probe, the first time that a spacecraft was named after a living person. 2020: Crafoord Prize in Astronomy

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