NASA spacecraft successfully completes closest-ever approach to the sun
NASA announced on Friday that the Parker Solar Probe has successfully completed its closest-ever approach to the sun, making it the closest any human-made object has ever been to our star. The spacecraft flew just 6.1 million kilometers from the solar surface on December 24, entering the sun’s outer atmosphere known as the corona as part of its mission to gather crucial data about the sun.
The operations team at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland received a beacon tone signal from the probe just before midnight on Thursday, confirming that the spacecraft is “safe” and operating normally. NASA stated that the Parker Solar Probe is expected to transmit detailed telemetry data about its status on January 1.
Traveling at speeds of up to 692,000 km/h, the spacecraft endured extreme temperatures of up to 982 degrees Celsius during its close encounter with the sun. This close-up study of the sun will enable scientists to gain valuable insights into how material in the sun’s atmosphere gets heated to millions of degrees, the origin of the solar wind, and the acceleration of energetic particles to near light speed.
Launched in 2018, the Parker Solar Probe has been progressively orbiting closer to the sun by utilizing gravitational assists from flybys of Venus. This groundbreaking mission aims to revolutionize our understanding of the sun and its effects on space weather, providing valuable data that will help scientists unravel the mysteries of our closest star.
Stay tuned for more updates as the Parker Solar Probe continues its unprecedented journey towards the sun, unlocking the secrets of our solar system’s powerhouse.
