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Dr. Parker, he mentioned, was joyful when individuals identified a mistake in his calculations however not happy when individuals accepted prevalent scientific assumptions with out query.
“He had little endurance for ‘It’s well-known that …’” Dr. Turner mentioned.
Despite the fact that Dr. Chandrasekhar, a future Nobel laureate, disagreed with Dr. Parker’s conclusions, he overruled the reviewers, and the paper was revealed.
4 years later, Dr. Parker was vindicated when Mariner 2, a NASA spacecraft en path to Venus, noticed energetic particles streaming via interplanetary house — precisely what he had predicted.
When Dr. Zurbuchen joined NASA in 2016, the company had been working for years on a mission known as Photo voltaic Probe Plus, which was to swoop near the solar repeatedly. Dr. Zurbuchen mentioned he disliked the identify Photo voltaic Probe Plus and wrote to the Nationwide Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medication asking it to recommend an individual to call the mission after.
The unequivocal response: Eugene Parker.
NASA had by no means earlier than named a spacecraft after a residing particular person. However Dr. Zurbuchen, who had met Dr. Parker years earlier, mentioned he didn’t have a lot hassle getting Robert Lightfoot, the appearing administrator of NASA on the time, to approve the change in 2017. Dr. Zurbuchen then known as Dr. Parker to ask if that will be all proper with him. “He mentioned, ‘Completely. Will probably be my honor,’” Dr. Zurbuchen recalled.
Dr. Parker later mentioned he was stunned that NASA had requested for his permission.
Just a few months afterward, Dr. Parker went to go to the Johns Hopkins Utilized Physics Laboratory in Maryland, the place the spacecraft was constructed and examined. Dr. Fox, then challenge scientist for the mission, recalled saying, “Parker, meet Parker.”
The following 12 months, Dr. Parker and his household traveled to Florida to observe the launch of his namesake spacecraft.
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