On December 24, 2024, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe will soar just 6.1 million km (3.8 million miles) above the surface of our home planet and hurtle through the solar atmosphere at 692,000 km (430,000 miles) per hour. I did. This is the fastest speed the spacecraft has ever achieved. An object made by humans. A signal received two days later confirmed that the spacecraft had safely passed the encounter and was operating normally.

Near the Sun, the Parker Solar Probe relies on a carbon foam shield to protect the probe from the extreme heat in the upper part of the Sun’s atmosphere, called the corona, which can exceed 500,000 degrees Celsius (1 million degrees Fahrenheit).

The shield is designed to reach temperatures of 1,427 degrees Celsius (2,600 degrees Fahrenheit) while keeping the instruments behind it shaded at a comfortable room temperature.

In the hot but low-density corona, the spacecraft’s shield is expected to warm up to 982 degrees Celsius (1,800 degrees Fahrenheit).

“Flying this close to the Sun is a historic moment in humanity’s first mission to the stars,” said Dr. Nikki Fox, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.

“Studying the Sun up close will allow us to better understand its impact on the entire solar system, including the technologies we use every day on Earth and in space, and will also help us understand the workings of stars throughout the universe. We can learn about and help us explore habitable worlds beyond our home planet.

“Parker Solar Probe will venture into one of the most extreme environments in the universe,” said Dr. Noor Rawafi, a researcher at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and project scientist for the Parker Solar Probe. It has exceeded all expectations.”

“This mission ushered in a new golden age of space exploration and brings us closer than ever to solving the sun’s deepest and most enduring mysteries.”

Parker Solar Probe’s record-breaking distance of 6.1 million kilometers (3.8 million miles) may seem far away, but on a cosmic scale it’s incredibly close. Image credit: NASA/APL.

“Being able to get a spacecraft this close to the sun is monumental,” said John Wurtzberger, a researcher at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and Parker Solar Probe mission systems engineer. .

“This is a challenge the space science community has wanted to address since 1958, and we’ve spent decades advancing technology to make it possible.”

The Parker Solar Probe will fly through the solar corona to help scientists better understand how the region gets hot, track the origins of the solar wind, and discover how energetic particles We can make measurements that will help us discover how it accelerates to half the speed of light.

“This data is extremely important to the scientific community because it gives us new advantages,” said Dr. Kelly Kolek, a program scientist at NASA Headquarters.

“Parker Solar Probe revolutionizes our understanding of the Sun by providing first-hand knowledge of what is happening in the Sun’s atmosphere.”

So far, the rover is only transmitting that it is safe, but it will soon arrive at a location where it can downlink the data it collects on this latest solar pass.

“The data coming down from the spacecraft will provide fresh information about places we humans have never been before. This is an amazing accomplishment,” said Joe, director of NASA’s Heliophysics Division. Dr. Westlake said.

The spacecraft’s next planned solar approaches will take place on March 22, 2025 and June 19, 2025.