At more than a million degrees, the roaring outer corona is hundreds of times hotter than the solar surface beneath it, and researchers hope that a deluge of solar data expected over the next decade will help them understand why.

Next summer, NASA plans to launch the Parker Solar Probe, a spacecraft that will investigate the plasma puzzle by coming as close as four million miles to the surface by 2024 — almost 90 million miles closer than we are.

Protected by a special heat shield, the craft will observe the sun’s magnetic field, its electrical field and the energetic particles from the solar wind.

“It will revolutionize our understanding of the sun,” said Eric Christian, a scientist on the project. “It’s the first time we get to go where the action is.”

Nicholas St. Fleur contributed reporting.

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