Physicist Eugene Parker, namesake of NASA probe, dies at 94

By KATHLEEN FOODY
Associated Press

CHICAGO (AP) — A physicist who theorized the existence of solar wind and became the first person to witness the launch of a spacecraft bearing his name has died. Eugene Parker’s son says he died Tuesday in Chicago at the age of 94, a decade after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. NASA administrators and University of Chicago colleagues hailed Parker as a visionary. The Houghton, Michigan, native is best known for his 1958 theory of the existence of solar wind. That’s a supersonic flow of particles off the sun’s surface. NASA honored his work by naming a probe destined for the sun after Parker in 2018.