Luna 1 and the first direct detection of the solar wind
Luna 1 y la primera detección directa del viento solar
- Date
- 2-4 de enero de 1959 · confidence high
- Place
- Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan
- Credited to
- OKB-1 (Korolev); instruments by Konstantin Gringauz
- Field
- Movement
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
Luna 1 was the first craft to reach escape velocity and pass near the Moon (about 6,000 km away). Its ion traps recorded a continuous flow of solar plasma, and it became the first artificial object in solar orbit.
It was meant to hit the Moon and narrowly missed; the solar-wind detection is Gringauz's. Mariner 2 (1962) measured its variability more precisely, so it is sometimes credited with the 'confirmation'.
What it led to
- confirmation of Eugene Parker's 1958 prediction of the solar wind
- physics of the interplanetary medium and space weather
- the Soviet Luna programme