NASA’s Parker Photo voltaic Probe skimmed the solar on Christmas Eve and lived to inform the story.
The warmth-hardened spacecraft made its closest photo voltaic flyby but at 6:53 a.m. EST on December 24. It got here inside 6.1 million kilometers of the floor of the solar, beating its personal 2023 report of seven.26 million kilometers.
On the time of closest method, the spacecraft was additionally the quickest object ever made by people. It swung across the solar at about 692,000 kilometers per hour — quick sufficient to journey from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C., in a few second.
This flyby was the end result of six years in area for the probe. Parker launched in 2018 on a mission to review the solar’s outer environment, or corona, from the within. Due to the solar’s great gravity, the craft couldn’t intention immediately at its vacation spot. Since launch, it has been swinging round Venus and utilizing the planet’s gravity to progressively inch its orbit nearer to the solar, making 21 more and more shut flybys alongside the best way.
The final Venus flyby, on November 6, lastly despatched Parker to its optimum orbit: shut sufficient to review the solar’s processes in intimate element however not so shut that these processes destroy it.
The spacecraft was out of contact with Earth for a few week because it approached the solar. Shortly earlier than midnight on December 27, scientists acquired a beacon sign confirming that the spacecraft survived the encounter.
“Parker Photo voltaic Probe has phoned residence!” NASA introduced in a put up on X at 12:01 a.m. EST.
Parker Photo voltaic Probe has phoned residence!
After passing simply 3.8 million miles from the photo voltaic floor on Dec. 24 — the closest photo voltaic flyby in historical past — now we have acquired Parker Photo voltaic Probe’s beacon tone confirming the spacecraft is secure. https://t.co/zbWT7iDVtP
— NASA Solar & House (@NASASun) December 27, 2024
Extra information on Parker’s standing arrived on January 1, exhibiting that the spacecraft was wholesome and in a position to take science information throughout the flyby. The probe will start transmitting these information later this month, when it’s in a greater place to speak with Earth.
The brand new orbit will final for no less than the following 9 months. Parker will make two extra flybys at this distance in March and June earlier than its main mission ends in September 2025.
