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Parker Probe Reveals Potential Answers To Sun's Mysteries : Short Wave An ambitious mission to get a spacecraft close to the sun has revealed a strange region of space filled with rapidly flipping magnetic fields and rogue plasma waves. Science correspondent Nell Greenfieldboyce explains how the Parker Solar Probe may help answer one of the biggest mysteries surrounding the sun. Follow Emily Kwong on Twitter @emilykwong1234. Email the show at shortwave@npr.org.

Short Wave

Getting Closer To The Sun Than Ever Before

Getting Closer To The Sun Than Ever Before

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The United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket launches NASA's Parker Solar Probe to touch the Sun on Aug. 12, 2018 from Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Bill Ingalls/NASA hide caption

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Bill Ingalls/NASA

The United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket launches NASA's Parker Solar Probe to touch the Sun on Aug. 12, 2018 from Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Bill Ingalls/NASA

An ambitious mission to get a spacecraft close to the sun has revealed a strange region of space filled with rapidly flipping magnetic fields and rogue plasma waves. Science correspondent Nell Greenfieldboyce explains how the Parker Solar Probe may help answer one of the biggest mysteries surrounding the sun. Follow Emily Kwong on Twitter @emilykwong1234. Email the show at shortwave@npr.org.

Read Nell Greenfieldboyce's earlier stories on the Parker Solar Probe, here and here.

This episode was produced by Brit Hanson and edited by Viet Le.