According to NASA, the Parker Solar Probe is functioning normally after flying just 6.1 million kilometers above the Sun’s surface.
The US space agency has confirmed this his Parker Solar sample is certain after a man-made object makes the closest approach to the Sun ever recorded.
The probe flew just 6.1 million kilometers (3.8 million miles) above the Sun’s surface on December 24, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said early Friday.
It flew “at a blistering speed of 430,000 miles per hour (692 km/h)” into the sun’s outer atmosphere – known as the corona – faster than any man-made object has ever moved, the agency reported.
NASA said its team received a beacon signal late Thursday confirming the probe had successfully completed its approach and was operating normally.
“Flying so close to the Sun is a historic moment in humanity’s first mission to a star,” Nicky Fox, head of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC, said in a statement.
Parker Solar Probe has made history.
After seven days of silence, Parker has resumed communication with Earth and confirmed it is healthy after traveling just 6.1 million kilometers from the Sun’s surface – the closest a man-made object has ever been to a star.https://t.co/YgLBDsRlGy pic.twitter.com/UMCNq0BzhA
— NASA Sun and Space (@NASASun) December 27, 2024
Scientists hope the probe, launched in 2018, will help them learn more about Earth’s nearest star.
“By studying the Sun up close, we can better understand its impact on our entire solar system, including the technology we use every day on Earth and in space, and learn more about how stars across the universe work to support us “To help in our search for habitable worlds beyond our home planet,” Fox said.
The craft is equipped with a shield that protects it from extreme heat in the sun’s corona and can withstand temperatures of up to 1,400 degrees Celsius (2,600 degrees Fahrenheit), NASA said.
Once the close contact is complete, the Parker Solar Probe is expected to orbit the Sun at that distance at least through September.
The spacecraft is expected to send detailed telemetry data about its status on January 1, NASA said.
Amitabha Ghosh, a NASA scientist, said experts still don’t know much about the sun despite its enormous importance to life on Earth.
“If the sun did not shine for even one day, all life on earth would be destroyed. “We depend so much on the sun and yet we know so little,” Ghosh told Al Jazeera.
He said the information gleaned from the Parker Solar Probe could answer a number of important questions, including how the sun heats up, how it transfers that heat and what constitutes the so-called solar wind.
“These are very important scientific questions that need to be understood,” Ghosh said.
Parker Solar Probe called home!
After passing just 3.8 million miles from the Sun’s surface on December 24 – the closest solar flyby in history – we received the Parker Solar Probe’s beep, confirming that the spacecraft is safe. https://t.co/zbWT7iDVtP
— NASA Sun and Space (@NASASun) December 27, 2024
