In a report on December 23, 2024, the NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, launched in 2018, aimed to observe the Sun up close. The next milestone for the Parker probe is to make the closest approach to the Sun yet, almost like “touching” this star.
According to a report from the Associated Press on December 22, NASA plans for Parker to pass through the scorching solar atmosphere on Tuesday (December 24), setting a record for flying within a range of 3.8 million miles (6 million kilometers) from the surface of the Sun.
NASA’s Joe Westlake stated that if the Sun and Earth were at opposite ends of a football field, Parker would be “on the 4-yard line.”
During this time, the Parker probe will go out of communication range, and ground-based mission managers will have to wait a few days after Parker’s flyby of the Sun to find out its status.
The Parker mission by NASA brings the spacecraft more than seven times closer to the Sun than previous missions, reaching speeds of up to 430,000 miles per hour (690,000 kilometers per hour, equivalent to 195 kilometers per second). Parker is the fastest spacecraft ever built, equipped with a heat shield capable of withstanding temperatures as high as 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit (1,371 degrees Celsius).
While 3.8 million kilometers may sound far, it is only about 4% of the distance between the Earth and the Sun (approximately 149 million kilometers). Nour Raouafi, a scientist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, participating in the Parker project, told the BBC in January, “We are basically almost landing on the star. This will be an immortal achievement for all mankind. It is equivalent to the moon landing in 1969.”
Parker will maintain this distance and continue orbiting the Sun for at least nine months. Scientists hope to better understand why the Sun’s corona is hundreds of times hotter than its surface and what forces drive the solar wind, a supersonic stream of charged particles continuously blowing out from the Sun.
In 2021, Parker already flew through the solar corona, collecting samples of high-energy particles and magnetic fields, becoming the first spacecraft to fly through the upper solar atmosphere and get so close to the star. This was its first “touch” of the Sun. At that time, its maximum flight speed was 163 kilometers per second.
The Sun’s warm rays enable life on Earth, but severe solar storms can temporarily disrupt radio communications and damage power systems.
Currently, the Sun is in the peak phase of an 11-year solar cycle, causing unexpected colorful auroras in some parts of the Earth.
“It is both our most intimate, friendliest neighbor,” said Westlake. “But sometimes it can get a little temperamental.”
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This news has been a comprehensive report from various sources.