NASA’s Parker Solar Probe is about to set another historic milestone as it swoops closer to the sun than ever before, according to NASA’s blog.
On December 24 at 6:53 AM ET, the spacecraft will fly just 3.8 million miles from the solar surface, achieving a feat no human-made object has accomplished. This event, known as perihelion, marks the 22nd orbit of Parker’s planned 24, and it’s the first of three final close passes before the mission concludes.
The probe, moving at an incredible 430,000 miles per hour, will be navigating uncharted solar territory during this approach. Nick Pinkine, mission operations manager at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), emphasized the significance of the event. “No human-made object has ever passed this close to a star, so Parker will truly be returning data from uncharted territory,” he explained.
Launched in 2018, Parker Solar Probe was designed to explore the dynamics of the sun and its effects on Earth. The spacecraft operates under NASA’s Living With a Star program, which studies the sun-Earth system’s impact on life and society. The program is managed by Goddard Space Flight Center, with APL overseeing the spacecraft’s design and operation.
NASA confirmed Parker’s readiness for this daring maneuver after receiving a beacon signal from its Deep Space Network station in Canberra, Australia. The signal indicated the spacecraft is in excellent health as it speeds toward the closest approach. Communication with Parker will temporarily pause during the flyby due to its proximity to the sun. The team expects to regain contact on December 27, when the probe will send a status update and resume data transmission.
“This is one example of NASA’s bold missions, doing something that no one else has ever done before to answer longstanding questions about our universe,” said Arik Posner, Parker Solar Probe program scientist at NASA Headquarters.
For those eager to follow along, NASA is offering live tracking of the probe’s journey using its “Eyes on the Solar System” tool.
Featured Image courtesy of NASA
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