NASA’s fastest spacecraft in space – the Parker Solar Probe made history on Christmas eve by making its closest ever approach to the Sun. The spacecraft flew from a maximum distance of just 61. million kilometres at 5:23 pm IST on December 24, making it the first man-made object to fly this close to the Sun.
According to NASA, Parker will make two more flybys of the Sun in the next few years but this is the closest it will ever get.
HAPPENING RIGHT NOW: NASA’s Parker Solar Probe is making its closest-ever approach to the Sun! 🛰️ ☀️
More on this historic moment from @NASAScienceAA Nicola Fox 👇
Follow Parker’s journey: https://t.co/MtDPCEK6w6#3point8 pic.twitter.com/Bq85XFa1QS
— NASA Sun & Space (@NASASun) December 24, 2024
During the flyby, the probe must have flew through the Sun’s outermost atmospheric layer called the corona and sampled charged particles coming off of it. Interestingly, NASA doesn’t know yet if Parker survived. The mission team is waiting until communications are resumed on December 27, when the spacecraft emerges from the far side of the Sun. Once Parker comes online, only then will it beam pictures of its flyby.
ALSO SEE: NASA’s Parker Probe Captures Strange Solar Eruption For the First Time; Finds New Clue About Sun’s Mysteries
NASA made last contact with the probe on December 21 and is now waiting for it to send a ‘beacon tone’ to confirm it’s safe.
The spacecraft, apart from being the first to ‘touch’ the Sun, is also the fastest object in space. NASA says it is moving at speeds up to nearly 7 lakh km per hour and enduring temperatures as high as 982 degrees Celsius.
Parker made its first-ever closest approach in 2021 as it came within 6.5 million kilometres of the Sun. It was launched in August 2018 with hopes to solve the mysteries surrounding the corona. It has puzzled scientists for decades as the corona gets heated to a million degrees when the surface is just about 5,500 degrees Celsius. The corona is also responsible for solar winds and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) which affects space weather.
ALSO SEE: NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Captures Boiling Hot Surface Of Venus
