Eugene Parker, the namesake astrophysicist of the NASA solar probe, dies at 94

NASA officials and college colleagues, Dr. They hailed Parker as a visionary in heliophysics focused on studying the sun and other stars. He is best known for his 1958 theory of the existence of the solar wind, the supersonic flow of particles from the sun’s surface. “Dr. “Eugene Parker’s contribution to science and his understanding of how our universe works is about what we are doing here at NASA,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement.

Dr. Parker recalled that even when the solar wind theory was published in 2018, it was widely criticized and ridiculed. He was acquitted in 1962 when NASA’s spacecraft mission to Venus confirmed his theory of him and the effect of the solar wind on the solar system, including periodic disruptions in Earth’s communication systems.

Experience, Dr. He has become part of Parker’s identity as an educator and mentor.

“If you’re doing something new or innovative, expect trouble,” he said when asked for early career science advice in 2018. “But think critically, because if you make a mistake, you want to be the first to hear about it. “

Eugene Newman Parker was born on June 10, 1927 at Michigan State University and the California Institute of Technology in Houghton, Michigan. He studied physics, then taught at the University of Utah before joining the University of Chicago in 1955. He is retired. He dropped out of school in 1995 but continued to publish books and articles.

Eric Parker said he and his sister Joyce knew their father was a scientist and didn’t learn about his field education until he later found out. His son, Dr. He said Parker occasionally gets up from the table to write an idea. But he is best remembered for his children as a betrothed father and passionate hiker, camper and craftsman who sculpted busts of famous people in wood and made family furniture.

“He always felt there was a lack of hard work,” said Eric Parker. “He loved his work of him and he told you that when he discovered physics, he would do it as a side gig because he was so happy. But he would also go on to say that if you work more than 40 hours a week at your job, you will lose the rest of your life.

Among the survivors, in addition to the children, his wife, 67, Niese; Brother; three grandchildren; And two grandchildren.

NASA, Dr. Parker’s scientific contribution in 2018 and the name of a spacecraft intended to travel directly to the solar corona. Dr. The successful launch of the Parker Solar Probe, which Parker joined at the age of 91, has provided unprecedented solar views ever since.

Angela V. Olinto, Dean of Physical Sciences at the University of Chicago, at Dr. Launch Accompanied by Parker. He remembered his seemingly boundless energy in the hours before launch and his boyish smile when things were going well. “It was the ideal of a physicist: someone who is intuitive, can see a step forward and sits and shows that his intuition of him is correct,” she said.

Source: Washington Post

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