NASA Will Detail Its Historic Sun Mission Tomorrow: Here's How To Watch

NASA will make an announcement related to its sun mission tomorrow, the space agency has said, and you'll be able to watch it live from the convenience of your phone or laptop. The announcement will concern NASA's previously unveiled Solar Probe Plus, a spacecraft that will get closer to the sun than any other in history. By sending a spacecraft so close to our bright star, researchers will learn things about its outer atmosphere and more that answer longstanding physics questions.

This upcoming mission, which is set to take place in the summer of 2018, is unprecedented and will mark the first time NASA has sent a spacecraft into the sun's atmosphere. The space agency's plans are to send the spacecraft to within 4 million miles from the surface of the sun, where it will then make observations about the star despite the massive radiation and heat it will have to deal with.

No other spacecraft in recorded human history has ever gotten so close to the sun, though we're nowhere close to getting a probe truly up close and personal with the ball of fire. NASA says the data gathered by the spacecraft will provide 'critical observations' for researchers, who will not only get the answers to questions that have existed for decades, but also learn about important aspects of star physics.

The data will ultimately help researchers produce more accurate space weather forecasts, which attempt to pinpoint space-based phenomena that will have an effect on Earth, on astronauts located in space, and/or on machinery already up there, such as satellites. NASA will make an announcement related to this mission tomorrow at 11AM ET. If you want to watch it live, you can do so via the NASA Television website here.

SOURCE: NASA