Eugene Parker, 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, his son and the University of Chicago said Wednesday.
His son, Eric Parker, said Eugene Parker died peacefully at a retirement community in Chicago on Tuesday, about a decade after being diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. He was 94.
NASA administrators and university colleagues hailed Parker as a visionary in his field of heliophysics, focused on the study of the sun and other stars. He is best known for his 1958 theory of the existence of solar wind — a supersonic flow of particles off the sun's surface.
"Dr. Eugene Parker's contributions to science and to understanding how our universe works touches so much of what we do here at NASA," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement. "Dr. Parker's legacy will live on through the many active and future NASA missions that build upon his work."
Parker recalled in 2018 that his solar wind theory was widely criticized and even mocked at publication. He was vindicated in 1962 when a NASA spacecraft mission to Venus confirmed his theory and solar wind's effect on the solar system, including occasional disruptions of communications systems on Earth.
The experience became part of Parker's identity as an educator and mentor.
"If you do something new or innovative, expect trouble," he said in 2018 when asked to give advice to early career scientists. "But think critically about it because if you're wrong, you want to be the first one to know that."
