Summary:
- NASA is launching two new missions to study the Sun and the solar wind - the Parker Solar Probe and the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP).
- The Parker Solar Probe will make the closest-ever observations of the Sun, traveling within 4 million miles of the solar surface to study the Sun's atmosphere and solar wind.
- IMAP will study the interactions between the solar wind and the interstellar medium, helping to understand the heliosphere - the bubble of charged particles from the Sun that extends far beyond the planets.