NASA to unveil first mission to sun's atmosphere

NASA hopes to study the giant star to help improve weather forecasts on Earth.

For the first time ever, NASA hopes to touch the sun.

Later today, scientists will unveil its very first mission to fly directly into the sun's atmosphere.

The Solar Probe Plus is scheduled for liftoff next summer.

It will then orbit within four million miles of the sun's surface.

The probe will study the sun in hopes of learning how it works, and possibly improve weather forecasts here on earth.

The heat and radiation the spacecraft will face will be unlike any other NASA has experienced in history.

RELATED: Breathtaking and gnarly nebulae (clouds of gas) float through space

BUBBLE NEBULA: The remarkably spherical Bubble marks the boundary between an intense wind of particles from the star and the more quiescent interior of the nebula.none

STINGRAY NEBULA: This Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 image captures the infancy of the Stingray nebula (Hen-1357), the youngest known planetary nebula.none

CARINA NEBULA: Previously unseen details of a mysterious, complex structure within the Carina Nebula (NGC 3372) are revealed by this image of the Keyhole Nebula.none

ESKIMO NEBULA: In 2000, Hubble captured a majestic view of a planetary nebula, the glowing
remains of a dying, Sun-like star.none

LAGOON NEBULA: Hubble spots one-half light-year long interstellar "twisters" -- eerie funnels and twisted-rope structures (upper left) -- in the heart of the Lagoon Nebula.none

CRAB NEBULA: The remnant of a tremendous
stellar explosion gives a look at the dynamic
relationship between the tiny Crab Pulsar and the vast nebula that it powers.none

EAGLE NEBULA: These eerie, dark pillar-like structures are actually columns of cool interstellar hydrogen gas and dust that are also incubators for new stars.none

PLANETARY NEBULA: This Hubble image reveals the true shape of MyCn18 to be an hourglass with an intricate pattern of "etchings" in its walls.none

PAPILLION NEBULA: Hubble's view of a turbulent cauldron of starbirth, called N159, taking place 170,000 light-years away in our satellite galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud.none

SOUTHERN CRAB NEBULA: A tempestuous relationship between an unlikely pair of stars may have created an oddly shaped, gaseous nebula that resembles an hourglass within an hourglass.none

The Helix Nebula is comprised of two colliding gases near a dying star.none

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