On Christmas Eve (Dec. 24), a NASA spacecraft made historical past by coming nearer to the solar than any spacecraft ever has earlier than.
This record-breaking feat was performed by the Parker Solar Probe, which flew to inside 3.8 million miles (6.1 million kilometers) of the solar, braving the blistering warmth of our star’s outer environment, the corona.
The flyby, which ought to have occurred at 6:53 a.m. EST (1153 GMT), was the twenty second time Parker had made a detailed passage to the solar. Though the NASA craft is anticipated to make a minimum of two extra flybys of the solar, that is the closest it has ever and can ever come to the star. And, to be clear, we are saying “ought to have” as a result of NASA needed to lose contact with the spacecraft throughout this flyby; the primary proof that Parker survived will arrive on Dec. 27, based on the company.
Parker isn’t any stranger to smashing information. On Sept. 21, 2023, Parker hit a pace of 394,736 miles per hour (635,266 kilometers per hour) to cement its document because the quickest object ever constructed by humanity.
During its Christmas Eve passage, scientists say the sun-touching spacecraft would have been touring at 430,000 mph (692,000 kph), additionally breaking its beforehand set pace document. For comparability, that’s round 300 instances sooner than the highest pace of a Lockheed Martin jet fighter right here on Earth.
This unimaginable feat of pace may very well be reached due to assistance from seven gravity “boosts” from Venus flybys, the final of which occurred in November 2024.
The Parker Solar Probe continues its true mission
But breaking information is only a byproduct of Parker’s primary mission: to be taught extra concerning the solar. In specific, the spacecraft wanted to courageous the 1,800 levels Fahrenheit (980 levels Celsius) temperatures it’s going to expertise to gather knowledge concerning the photo voltaic corona.
Scientists hope this knowledge can assist resolve a long-standing thriller concerning the solar’s outer environment, which has troubled them for many years. The so-called “coronal heating drawback” refers to the truth that, regardless of being farther from the solar’s main supply of power (its core), the corona is way hotter than the solar’s floor, the photosphere.
Our commonplace mannequin of stars means that the nearer one will get to the stellar core, the place primary sequence stars just like the solar carry out nuclear fusion to forge hydrogen into helium and launch power, the warmer it will get.
All the layers of the solar appear to stringently obey this rule — besides the corona, which might attain temperatures in extra of two million levels Fahrenheit (1.1 million levels Celsius). Around 1,000 miles nearer to the supply of the solar’s warmth, the photosphere reaches a comparatively balmy 7,400 levels Fahrenheit (4,100 levels Celsius). That’s like discovering out this Christmas that your chestnuts solely roast while you drive them a mile away from an open hearth!
Therefore, there have to be an additional mechanism heating the photo voltaic corona, and scientists are understandably keen to find what it’s.
Parker will proceed its mission, making flybys of the solar on March 22, 2025, after which its ultimate deliberate flyby will occur on June 19, 2025.
During each of those approaches, the spacecraft will come virtually as near the solar because it did on Christmas Eve whereas touring at an identical pace.
