Parker Solar Probe Maps How the Sun Heats Its Solar Wind

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe delivered unprecedented close-up data from the Sun’s corona, enabling researchers to use the Arbitrary Linear Plasma Solver (ALPS) to analyze how particles respond to waves in the Sun’s plasma. The study shows how heating and damping shape the solar wind near the Sun, with cooling of particles occurring more gradually than expected as they stream outward—improving space weather forecasts and informing similar plasma processes in the universe.