Often you must have come across elderly with memory loss that disrupts daily life. There are some who face challenges in solving problems or difficulty in planning familiar tasks. If these are occasional problems then it could be age related changes. If not, then these are symptoms of Alzheimer Disease (AD). As per King’s College London’s World Alzheimer Report 2015, there are more than 9.9 million new cases of dementia each year worldwide, implying one new case every 3.2 seconds.

Alzheimer’s disease is a neurodegenerative condition that gradually destroys memory and thinking ability and, eventually, the ability to carry out the simplest tasks. Affected individuals may also develop confusion with time or location while few others may have poor judgement of things and frequent change in moods. Symptoms first appear generally in individuals above 60 years of age and AD is the most common cause of dementia. It often leads to behavioral symptoms, inability to combine muscle movements, jumbled speech, or loss of appetite.

Behavioural changes such as aggression, agitation, difficulty with self-care, irritability, meaningless repetition of own words, personality changes, restlessness, lack of restraint, or wandering away randomly and not being able to find way back are often seen. This is because the brains cell connections and the cells themselves degenerate and die, eventually destroying memory and other important mental functions.

The sad part about this disease like many others is that in the early stages the condition is almost unrecognizable. In the beginning, the patient may forget words and misplaces objects. The early stages do not interfere with ability to work or live independently.  In later severe stages, the patient loses memory to the extent that he/she cannot remember even basic abilities such as eating, walking, sitting etc.

Currently, there is no cure for Alzheimer’s disease and management only includes supportive care and medications. “Cellular therapy is making innovations and attempting newer heights in the field of science and making possible treatments for conditions that was difficult to treat earlier. Damaged nerves were earlier considered to be difficult to treat, but regeneration of these nerves is possible with Cellular therapy(with the help of cells taken from one’s own body) . As stem cells exist in the brain, it helps repair neurological damage. With the help of a personalized holistic treatment plan encompassing cellular therapy, memory tasks to boost mental health as well as physical exercises and diet modifications treatment is offered,” said Dr. Pradeep Mahajan, Regenerative medicine researcher.

Dr. Dasaradhi Palakodeti with his team members. Image : Dhiru Bansal

In an ideal world, one would like to live with no deformities. How often you think about being able to re-grow limbs after an amputation or any injury. Imagine being able to regenerate your spinal cord after an accident has left you paralyzed. Nature has many examples of some tiny organisms completely re-growing from their small pieces. Scientists are studying such organisms to learn important lessons in regeneration.

Researchers at the Bangalore-based Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine have reported that deformities in the epidermis (outer skin layer) of an organism called planaria cause the defect in their stem cell function and regeneration. This is significant because epidermal cells are not stem cells.

Planaria are flatworms that live in fresh water and have the ability to regenerate from almost any pieces to form a completely new animal with all functional organ systems. Researchers used planaria as a model organism to understand the mechanism behind its immense regenerative ability.

“Our study has shown how the organization of epidermal cells during planarian regeneration is crucial for regulating stem cell function,” said Dr. Dasaradhi Palakodeti, a scientist at the Bangalore based Institute, and a co-author of the study published in the journal Development.

Regeneration is often synonymous with stem cells and most of the studies focus on understanding factors essential for ‘stemness’. “Here, for the first time we show how planarian epidermis (non- stem cell) plays a critical role in wound healing and stem cell function,” said Dhiru Bansal, first author of this paper.

However, it is still unclear how the environment surrounding stem cells regulates their function. Researchers believe stem cells are instructed by surrounding cells to make right decisions to proliferate and differentiate for regeneration, to give rise missing tissues. The team is working to understand the role of a specific protein called PABPC2 (cytoplasmic poly A binding protein) in regeneration.

“Our report about a crosstalk between stem cells and epidermis in planaria opens new possibilities that can be addressed in other systems as well,” said Jahnavi Kulkarni, one of the authors of this paper.

The study opens up a new possibility to discover the role of non-stem cells in the skin regeneration. Skin is often well-thought-out for its protective function but this new study highlights other potential roles of the skin. 

The research team included Dhiru Bansal, Jahnavi Kulkarni, Kavana Nadahalli, Vairavan Lakshmanan, Srikar Krishna, Vidyanand Sasidharan, Shilpa Dilipkumar, Akash Gulyani, Srikala Raghavan and Dasaradhi Palakodeti (Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Bangalore); Jini Geo and Renu Pasricha (National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore). (India Science Wire)

NEW DELHI: : In a reiteration of the U.S. commitment to remain an enduring strategic partner of India, U.S. Defence Secretary Jim Mattis is paying a three-day visit to New Delhi from September 26 to 28. It will be the first Cabinet level visit under the President Donald Trump’s new administration at the White House.

Apart from meeting his Indian counterpart Nirmala Sitharaman who only recently took charge of the Defence Ministry, Mr. Mattis will also have a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The U.S. Defence Secretary’s visit will also emphasize the view of his country which sees India as an influential partner with broader mutual interests extending beyond South Asia, official sources said.

His visit comes within three months of Prime Minister Modi’s maiden meeting with President Donald Trump. The June meeting between President Trump and Mr. Modi signaled continuity in the U.S.-India defence and security relationship. The U.S. Defence Secretary will also express his country’s appreciation for India’s important contributions toward Afghanistan’s democracy, stability, prosperity, and security.

Beyond the optics, India is likely to tell the visiting U.S. Defence Secretary, a former Lieutenant-General, that Pakistan’s role in subverting institutions and giving shelter to terror outfits is a key factor in preventing peace and stability returning to Afghanistan. 

As U.S. needs Pakistan bases to strike at Taliban, it would remain to be seen as to which extent the U.S. would go in asserting its say to Islamabad. Defence analysts say that Mr. Mattis would also try to hardsell Lockheed Martin’s F-16 Block 70 fighter aircraft to India which had earlier been rejected by the Indian Air Force. However, in the broader geopolitical and strategic scheme of things, Washington would need New Delhi in balancing and checking the power and rise of China.

“The growth of the defence relationship has been nothing short of astonishing. In the span of about a decade, defence trade shot from $1 billion to over $15 billion. The US and India take part in numerous and combined exercises, and the US now authorises the sharing of sensitive technologies with India on a level commensurate with America’s closest allies. There has also been a (somewhat under the radar) substantial deepening of the security partnership, with a focus on counter-terrorism cooperation and intelligence sharing,’’ Joshua A. White, Associate Professor of the Practice of South Asian Studies at the John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, wrote in a recent article.

India also remains a major defence partner of the U.S. and both President Trump and Mr. Modi underlined avenues for further cooperation. The partnership grew in strength with the 2017 edition of Malabar maritime exercise in the Indian Ocean in which US-India-Japan participated. In Aero India show in Bengaluru this March, the U.S. was a leading contributor which was a testament to the strength of the US-India strategic partnership.  The high-level U.S. delegation, impressive array of American military platforms and personnel, and significant representation from U.S. industry showcased enduring ties.

U.S. assets in Aero India 2017 included F-16C Fighting Falcons, a P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft and a C-130J Super Hercules transport. A Pacific Air Forces F-16 demonstration team showcased the capability of one of the U.S. Air Force’s leading fighters.

During the Obama regime, the then U.S. Defence Secretary Ash Carter had visited India three times, spearheading efforts to further deepen and broaden US-India Defence Cooperation and realizing the joint vision of the two countries for the Asia Pacific and Indian Ocean Region.

Mr. Carter had called the engagement a “strategic handshake” between the two countries as the American policy of rebalance to the Asia Pacific converges with  Prime Minister Modi’s “Act East” policy. A “technological handshake” between the two countries also sought to leverage the respective industrial and technological capabilities to meet mutual security needs.

Some of the strategic handshake elements include India’s designation as a “Major Defense Partner”, launching of a new bilateral Maritime Security Dialogue in April 2016, a joint strategic vision for the  Asia-Pacific and IOR in January 2015 by President Obama and Prime Minister Modi, signing of the Framework for the U.S.-India Defense Relationship in June 2015 by Mr. Carter and the then Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and conclusion of US-India Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMA) in August 2016.

Under the technological handshake, U.S. and India in 2012 launched the Defense Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI). Under DTTI, the United States and India have launched seven joint working groups to explore collaborative projects and programs and signed two Science and Technology government-to-government project agreements – the Next Generation Protective Ensembles and Mobile Hybrid Power Sources – worth roughly $2 million.

Official fact sheet reveals that since 2008, U.S.-India defense trade has increased from roughly $1 billion to over $15 billion, including Indian procurement of 13 Lockheed Martin C-130 Hercules aircraft, 10 C-17 Globemaster and 12 P-8 Poseidon aircraft from Boeing, as well as 22 AH-64 Apache and 15 CH-47 Chinook helicopters. In December 2016, the United States and India signed a deal worth approximately $732 million to provide the Indian Army with 145 M777 Howitzer guns.

Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj in her speech at United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) slammed Pakistan on various issues. In a befitting reply, she thrashed Pakistan on the front of terrorism. 

10 points:

“Pakistan should not preach India on Human-right grounds.”

“We made doctors, Pakistan produced terrorists.”

“Good and bad terrorism is the new definition coined by Pakistan.”

“We have to fight terrorism together. Let us have an even vision for terrorism.”

“When Pakistani PM was preaching us yesterday at UN, people said, ‘look, who is talking.’ ”

“We produced scientists, doctors and engineers. Pakistan produced LeT, Hakkani Network and Jaish-e-Mohammad.”

“Pakistan forgot the Shimla Agreement and Lahore Declaration, that we will solve our matter without any foreign intervention.”

“India and Pakistan were liberated together. We are IT superpower, Pakistan is known as terrorism hub.”

“30 crores Indians linked to banks in mission mode.”

“Pakistan should be ashamed to give safe haven to terrorists and militant groups.”

After enduring the fight of his life, miracle baby NIRVAAN is finally going home following  132 days in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at the Surya Hospital, Mumbai. It was a dream come true for the parents and team of  Dr Nandkishor Kabra, Neonatologist and Director of NICU, Dr Sejal Desai, Dr Sejal Desai, Obstetrician & Gynaecologist, Dr Hari Balasubramanian, Neonatologist & Dr. Bhupendra Avasthi with other 14 doctors and 50 nursing staff at Surya NICU  who spent several sleepless nights in managing this tiny tot all are happy to see nirvana go home healthy and happy.

The frightening dream transformed to reality for Mumbai couple – Retika and Vishal, when their baby boy NIRVAAN was born during the 22^nd week of pregnancy with a birth weight of 610 gms, head size of 22cm and length of 32cm. the infant has proved to be a miracle microman. India’s Tiniest surving infant by gestational age maturity of 22 weeks at birth.

The celebration of first pregnancy was short lived for the career oriented biomedical engineer, when her waters broke suddenly on 12^thMay. It was almost certain that she would deliver in few hours time. In Retika’s case adversity never came alone-she delivered within few seconds of admission to the labour ward of Surya mother and child care. There was neither time to prepare for a caesarean section nor an opportunity for maternal steroid treatment, each of which could have improved the survival outcome. Despite all odds, Nirvaan received timely attention by a skilled neonatal team during the ‘golden’ initial 10 minutes of life and was swiftly transferred to the Neonatal intensive care unit within 15 minutes of age where he was meticulously monitored and managed over the past 4 months.

Dr. Bhupendra Avasthi Said “Nirvaan had immature lungs at birth requiring ventilatory support right from the labour room. He required respiratory support for 12 weeks which included 6 weeks of ventilator support. Multiple doses of surfactant injections were instilled into the breathing tube to expand his lungs. He survived life threatening events such as Pneumothorax (air accumulation around the lungs) and brain bleeds to emerge as a crusader. A month long steroid treatment was needed to help him breathe on his own. The steroid treatment also increased his risk of having infection and high blood sugars which required antibiotic and insulin therapy. Multiple blood transfusions, LASER treatment of eyes and hernia surgery were also required during this period. Oral feeds could be given only after 3 months of age.”

“It took at least 6 weeks for the medical team to see the winner in Nirvaan. That was when he was taken off the ventilatory support and weighed 1kg while on complete milk feeds. He was however continued on non invasive respiratory support for the next 6 weeks. Oral feeds and breast feeding could be initiated only after 3 months of age. Multidisciplinary management in the form of heart and brain scans, bone integrity checks, hearing assessments, skin care, physiotherapy, lactation support was required. The family also was provided emotional support through rigorous counselling by the medical team” Said Dr Avasti.

“Sheltered in a closed incubator and in the midst of tubes, circuits, iv lines, probes, dressings, eye pads, etc. Nirvaan was virtually invisible in the initial days. All team of doctor & nurses are happy to see nirvana go home healthy and happy. Nirvana is on breast feeding and  with a weight of 3.72kg head size of 34 cm and length of 50 cm. The most important is going home, with an intact brain, vision, hearing and potential for normal long term neurological development.” said Dr Avsati.

Infants born between 22 and  24 weeks of pregnancy are considered perceivable infants or infants born at the limits of viability, as a foetus may not exist independent of the mother prior to 22 weeks. To a neonatologist and paediatrician, there could be no bigger challenge than managing a 22 weaker ultra micro premature new-born baby. To our knowledge, there is no report of a surviving 22 week newborn baby from our country. There is also limited experience with managing such babies.

When it comes to 22 weekers gestation premature infants, 40-50% of them are born dead (still born) worldwide. Among those that are born alive, less than 5% continue to survive. The United States – NICHD (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development) Neonatal research network has reported that only 2% of the live born babies have survived to discharge, and only 1% survived with normal neurodevelopmental outcome. A large population based study from France( EPIPAGE 2) has reported 0% survival in  such babies.

The surviving infants are at high risk of having serious neuro developmental disability such as cerebral palsy, mental retardation, hearing loss, visual impairment, epilepsy. Hence, even in developed countries, only 20% of infants born at 22 weeks would be offered active resuscitation or life saving interventions at birth. About 80% of the babies would be provided comfort care in the delivery room

Nirvaan’s story highlights the fact that periviable infants born in developing countries not only have a chance, but also the right to survive and live a normal life.  In utero transfer of newborns to an advanced maternity cum neonatal hospital for delivery, sophisticated neonatal care and team work could make that happen. Surya mother and child care has served as a standalone newborn hospital in the heart of Mumbai city for the past 25 years. The country’s first surviving 24 week newborn baby SURYA was discharged from Surya on March 2011). SAKSHI – India’s first surviving 23 week baby was also discharged from the same. Having broken our own record after nearly 2 years, it is evident that intact survival of such micro premmies  may be a  daunting task, but not impossible.

A survey of policymakers across five countries – Colombia, Kenya, India, Indonesia and Senegal—on gender equality in their respective countries has show how little they actually know.

When asked about their awareness of the SDGs – which contain ambitious commitments to achieve gender equality by 2030, including a specific gender equality goal (Goal 5) and references to gender equality throughout the SDG framework (13 out of 17 goals), the awareness of policymakers of the SDGs was quite high – nearly eight in ten policymakers either knew “a great deal” or “a fair amount” about the SDGs, though it varied by country.

However, the highest proportion of policymakers with not much or no knowledge of the SDGs was found in India (38%). In Kenya, 65% of policymakers reported knowing “a great deal” about the SDGs, compared to 29% in Senegal, India (27%) and Colombia (20%).

When asked to estimate the rate of maternal deaths in their country (the number of women dying from causes related to pregnancy and childbirth), only 6% of policymakers came within 20% of the most recently available figure.

On the rates of early marriage for girls, just a quarter of policymakers came within 20% of the most recently available figure with the Columbian policymaker’s estimates of the percentage of girls married before the age of 18 ranged from 4% to 80% (the most recently available data says 23%).

In Kenya, when asked to estimate what percentage of parliamentary seats are held by women, the policymakers’ estimates ranged from 6% to 90% (the most recently available data says 21%).

Indian policymakers’ estimates of the percentage of women in the labour force ranged from 20% to 70% (the most recently available data says 27%).

The wide variation in responses raises questions about whether policymakers are aware, have access to or are sufficiently guided by the relevant, current data needed to assess progress for girls and women towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), according to the survey  “Policymakers and Gender Equality: What They Know and How They Know It, ” carried out by Equal Measures 2030, a civil society and private sector led partnership that aims to connect data and evidence with advocacy and action, helping to fuel progress towards gender equality.

By surveying policymakers in five countries, this research seeks to shed light on the following questions: How do policymakers perceive progress on gender equality in their countries? What most needs to change in order to improve gender equality? What data and evidence do they rely on to make their decisions? How confident are they in their understanding of the major challenges affecting girls and women in their countries?

Across the five countries researchers found that half of the policymakers felt that gender equality gets too little attention in policymaking in their country, with considerable variation in the views of the men and women surveyed (67% of women stated this, compared with 33% of men).

One in five men felt there was too much attention to gender equality in policymaking. Gender equality concerns are seen to be given much more importance in some policy areas than others. For example, four fifths of policymakers thought that gender equality concerns were given a “high” or “very high” priority when setting policy on education, whereas just 38% thought gender was given a “high” or “very high” priority when making decisions about public finance.

Regarding perception of data and evidence on gender equality in policymaking, policymakers surveyed said they often use government data (79%), international data, such as from the United Nations (47%) and academic or research institution data (41%). Just under half of policymakers rated government data sources as “very useful” (47%).

When asked about their perceptions of progress on gender equality, the policymakers spoken to were fairly positive with 66% believing that men and women in their country were more equal than five years ago. But the answers to this question varied widely by sex: While nearly eight in ten men thought that progress had been made on gender equality in the past five years, only 55% of women agreed this was the case. More than twice the number of women than men felt the situation had not changed or worsened (44% of women compared with 19% of men).

About 617 million children and adolescents worldwide are not achieving minimum proficiency levels in reading and mathematics, signalling “a learning crisis” that could threaten progress on global development goals, a report from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) shows.

“The figures are staggering both in terms of the waste of human potential and for the prospects of achieving sustainable development,” said Silvia Montoya, Director of the UNESCO Institute of Statistics, in a press release.

The report suggests some 387 million children of primary school age (or 56 per cent) and 230 million adolescents of lower secondary school age (or 61 per cent) will not achieve minimum proficiency levels in reading and math.

Across Sub-Saharan Africa, 202 million children and adolescents are not learning these fundamental subjects. Nearly 90 per cent of children between the ages of about 6 and 14 will not meet minimum proficiency levels in reading and math.

Central and Southern Asia has the second highest rate, with 81 per cent, or 241 million, not learning.

Surprisingly, two-thirds of the children who are not learning are in school. Of the 387 million primary-age children unable to read proficiently, 262 million are in classrooms. There are also about 137 million adolescents of lower secondary age who are in classrooms, but unable to meet minimum proficiency levels in reading.

The report indicates that along with a lack of access to school and a failure to retain children in school, the poor quality of education in the classroom is among the three common problems.

Ms. Montoya said the new data was a “wake-up call” for far greater investment in the quality of education.

The global goals for education are clear: Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) signals a commitment from governments to ensure an “inclusive and equitable quality education and the promotion of lifelong learning opportunities for all.”

NEW DELHI : The 11th World Congress on Adolescent Health, ‘Investing in Adolescent Health – the Future is Now’ will be held in New Delhi from October 27-29. The Congress is held every four years by the International Association for Adolescent Health.

The world is home to 1.2 billion adolescents, and India has the largest population of adolescents in the world – 253 million.

The mortality of adolescents globally stands at staggering 1.3 million deaths per year. Unintended injuries such as road traffic accidents and drowning are the leading causes of death among adolescents, together with self-harm, interpersonal violence, communicable diseases and teenage pregnancy.

Tobacco, alcohol and other substance use contribute to health concerns among adolescents. These are associated with unemployment, accidents, depression and suicide during adolescence. Yet, rather than a passing phase, these behaviours and states risk reverberate across the life-course, contributing to the future burden of disease in adults and to that of the next generation.

Globally, adolescence is a period which encapsulates tremendous change in relation to critical life events such as transitions from education to employment, and formation of families and parenting. Adolescence is also the period in which individuals experience the greatest change in health and health-related behaviours across their lifetime. Well recognized as a time of risk for health, increasingly adolescence is now accepted as a period of opportunity for health, in which individuals gain the assets and resources to sustain health across the life-course.

The agenda for Sustainable Development Goals 2030 and the new Global Strategy on Women’s Children’s and Adolescents’ Health have brought adolescence to the centre-stage. These agendas recognize the opportunities and contribution of adolescence to achieving a wide array of global health priorities including improvements in communicable diseases (e.g. HIV) and non-communicable diseases, women’s health, mental health, nutrition, and more.

The World Congress is being organized with the support of the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW) and MAMTA Health Institute for Mother and Child is hosting the World Congress with a consortium of partners.

The World Congress is anticipating around 800 international and national delegates including adolescent health experts from across the globe, academia, representatives from MoHFW, national and global representatives of UN organizations, youth leaders from several countries including India who have made a difference in their communities, national and international NGOs, donor organizations, policy makers and corporates.

India has avoided about 1 million (10 lakh) deaths of children under age five between 2005 and 2015, primarily as a result of significant reductions in mortality from pneumonia, diarrhea, tetanus and measles, according to new research published today. A steeper decline in the number of girls dying narrowed a previously observed girl boy mortality gap. An almost equal number of boys and girls under age five died in 2015.

Nearly three times that number could have been saved if national progress in child health matched that reached in some States, Dr. Prabhat Jha, head of the Centre for Global Health Research of St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, wrote in the latest issue of The Lancet.  This research is part of the Million Death Study, one of the largest studies of premature deaths in the world.

Dr. Jha is the lead investigator of the survey, based in India, where most deaths occur at home and without medical attention. Hundreds of specially trained census staff in India knocked on doors of more than 1.3 million homes to interview household members about deaths. Two physicians independently examined these “verbal autopsies” to establish the most probable cause of death. “You get the truth when you knock on doors and talk to parents,” said Dr. Jha. “We knocked on the doors of 100,000 homes where children died. If the health system failed these families, they will tell you all about it. These are far more reliable numbers than models or projections from small studies.”

The study found a 3.3 per cent annual decline in mortality rates of neonates (infants less than one month old) and 5.4 per cent for those ages one month to 59 months. The declines accelerated starting in 2005 and were fastest between 2010 and 2015, and in urban areas and richer states. Per 1,000 live births, the mortality rates among neonates fell from 45 in 2000 to 27 in 2015. The one-59 month mortality rate fell from 45.2 to 19.6. Looking at specific causes of death, mortality rates from neonatal tetanus and measles fell by at least 90 per cent, neonatal infection and birth trauma fell more than 66 per cent. For children ages one to 59 months, mortality rates from pneumonia and diarrhea fell more than 60 per cent. About 6 million children die around the world each year and progress in reducing that number depends greatly on India, which accounts for about a fifth of the deaths. About 29 million Indian children died between 2000 and 2015. Had the mortality rates of 2000 continued unchanged, about 39 million children would have died, according to The Lancet paper.

The authors noted that in the last decade the government of India has modestly increased its traditionally low level of public spending on health. The government launched a program to encourage women to give birth in hospitals and for children to have a second dose of measles vaccine. Dr. Jha said that to meet the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals of halving its child mortality rates by 2030, India must maintain its current trajectory for children ages one to 59 months and accelerate declines in neonatal mortality. Reducing the number of neonatal deaths will require efforts to reduce deaths caused by premature delivery and low birth weights, especially in poorer states, he said. Both are strongly linked to largely modifiable maternal and prenatal factors such as health care during pregnancy, education, nutrition, anemia and tobacco use.

Photo – Engineers at the Johns Hopkins University Advanced Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, work on NASA’s Parker Solar Probe spacecraft. Parker Solar Probe will be the first-ever mission to fly directly through the Sun’s atmosphere. Credits: JHU/APL

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe will be humanity’s first-ever mission to explore the Sun’s outer atmosphere. The spacecraft, about the size of a small car, will launch in mid-summer 2018. It will travel directly through the Sun’s atmosphere about four million miles from our star’s surface – facing heat and radiation unlike any spacecraft in history – and make critical observations to answer decades-old questions about how stars work. Mission data ultimately will improve forecasts of major space weather events that affect life on Earth, as well as satellites and astronauts in space.

In order to unlock the mysteries of the sun’s atmosphere, Parker Solar Probe will use Venus’ gravity during seven flybys over nearly seven years to gradually bring its orbit closer to the sun. The spacecraft will fly through the sun’s atmosphere as close as 3.9 million miles to our star’s surface, well within the orbit of Mercury and more than seven times closer than any spacecraft has come before. (Earth’s average distance to the sun is 93 million miles.)

Flying into the outermost part of the sun’s atmosphere, known as the corona, for the first time, Parker Solar Probe will employ a combination of in situ measurements and imaging to revolutionize our understanding of the corona and expand our knowledge of the origin and evolution of the solar wind. It will also make critical contributions to our ability to forecast changes in Earth’s space environment that affect life and technology on Earth.

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Parker Solar Probe: Humanity’s First Visit to a Star

NASA’s historic Parker Solar Probe mission will revolutionize our understanding of the sun, where changing conditions can propagate out into the solar system, affecting Earth and other worlds. Parker Solar Probe will travel through the sun’s atmosphere, closer to the surface than any spacecraft before it, facing brutal heat and radiation conditions — and ultimately providing humanity with the closest-ever observations of a star.

Parker Solar Probe is part of NASA’s Living With a Star program to explore aspects of the sun-Earth system that directly affect life and society. The Living With a Star flight program is managed by the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, manages the mission for NASA. APL is designing and building the spacecraft and will also operate it.