One event that is outstanding during December at the end of the year is the breakthrough with the Parker solar probe sent by nasa. They managed to build up the speed of the probe to roughly 1 million kilometres per hour (430,000 miles per hour); it is the fastest moving man made object and it is going around the sun on a highly elliptical orbit, at its closest approach it is just 3.8 million kilometres from the surface; close enough to touch the edge of the sun's massive Corona atmosphere. It is the closest object to the sun that mankind has ever made.
They made carbon foam panels to keep the spacecraft cool because the area around the sun is very hot.
It looks like they're already able to see temporary structures on the sun created by magnetic fields. NASA seems to be curious about structures called zipbacks that can faintly be seen from earth with special powerful telescopes.
What it was wondering was if carbon foam is so good a deflecting heat away, why don't they use the stuff to insulate houses, is it expensive to produce?
I'll keep an eye on their findings.
