The Parker Solar Probe survived its super close encounter with the Sun, resuming communication with its mission operations team a few days after its scorching hot flyby.
NASA’s solar probe transmitted a beacon tone back to Earth just before midnight on Thursday, indicating that the spacecraft is in good health and operating normally, the space agency wrote in a blog update. Parker Solar Probe had gone quiet during its closest approach on Tuesday, an expected communications blackout that meant the mission operations team would not know whether or not the spacecraft survived its daring Christmas Eve feat.
The team can now rest easy knowing that the mission’s most daunting quest was successful. During its closest approach, Parker Solar Probe came within just 3.8 million miles (6.1 million kilometers) of the Sun’s surface. At that distance, the solar probe broke its own record for closest solar approach by a spacecraft. For perspective, Earth is 93 million miles (149 million kilometers) away from our host star—nearly 25 times farther from the Sun than Parker was on Tuesday.
During its closest approach, the spacecraft was traveling at a record-breaking speed of 430,000 miles per hour (692,000 kilometers per hour), making it the fastest a human-made object has ever travelled. During the probe’s closest approach to the burning ball of plasma, it withstood temperatures of about 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit (982.2 degrees Celsius). Because Parker gets so close to the Sun, it also needs an extra thick heat shield to survive scorching hot temperatures.
The mission is expected to send back detailed telemetry data regarding its status on January 1, 2025, according to NASA. “This close-up study of the Sun allows Parker Solar Probe to take measurements that help scientists better understand how material in this region gets heated to millions of degrees, trace the origin of the solar wind (a continuous flow of material escaping the Sun), and discover how energetic particles are accelerated to near light speed,” NASA wrote in its blog update. “Previous close passes have helped scientists pinpoint the origins of structures in the solar wind and map the outer boundary of the Sun’s atmosphere.”
The Parker Solar Probe launched in August 2018 with a mission to touch the Sun. Before Tuesday’s record-breaking encounter with the star, the spacecraft has carried out 21 close approaches to the Sun, coming as close as 4.51 million miles (7.26 million km) of the solar surface. With each approach, the solar probe inched its way closer to the surface of the Sun. In November, the Parker Solar Probe carried out its seventh and final flyby of Venus, setting it up for its closest approach yet.
This week’s flyby is the first of three close approaches to the Sun made at the same distance. Each solar encounter feeds the mission with precious data about our host star, which could clarify the complex physics of our star and the way its dynamic phenomena—from its explosive eruptions to its wind—affects the rest of the solar system.
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