Eugene N. Parker, 94, Died; Predicted the Existence of the Solar Wind

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Dr. Parker said he was happy when people pointed out an error in his calculations, but was not happy when people accepted common scientific assumptions without question.

Dr. “He didn’t have much patience because ‘it was well known…’” Turner said.

Future Nobel laureate Dr. Chandrasekhar, Dr. While disagreeing with Parker’s conclusions, the reviewers rejected it and the article was published.

Four years later, Dr. Parker was right. Mariner 2, a NASA spacecraft bound for Venusobserved energetic particles flowing through interplanetary space – exactly as he had predicted.

Dr. When Zurbuchen joined NASA in 2016, the agency had been working on a mission called Solar Probe Plus for years, which was to get constantly closer to the sun. Dr. Zurbuchen said he didn’t like the name Solar Probe Plus, and wrote a letter to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine asking them to recommend someone to name the mission.

The definitive answer: Eugene Parker.

NASA has never named a spacecraft after a living person before. However, Dr. Having met Parker years ago, Dr. Zurbuchen said he didn’t have too much trouble getting NASA’s acting administrator Robert Lightfoot at the time approving the change in 2017. Dr. Zurbuchen later went to Dr. He called Parker. Ask if this would be suitable for him. “He said absolutely. It’s an honor for me,” recalled Dr. Zurbuchen.

Dr. Parker later said he was surprised that NASA asked him for permission.

A few months later, Dr. Parker went to visit the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland, where the spacecraft was built and tested. Later, the project scientist for the task, Dr. Fox remembered saying, “Parker, meet Parker.”

The following year, Dr. Parker and his family traveled to Florida to watch the launch of the namesake spacecraft.

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