Launched in August 2018, the probe is on a seven-year mission to advance scientific knowledge about the Sun and help predict space weather that can affect life on Earth.
Photo: nasa.gov
The Parker Solar Probe made a record close flyby of the Sun.
NASA’s pioneering Parker Solar Probe (PSP) made history when it came closer to the Sun than any probe before, exposing its heat shield to temperatures in excess of 930 degrees Celsius.
Launched in August 2018, the probe is on a seven-year mission to advance scientific knowledge about the Sun and help predict space weather that can affect life on Earth.
The flyby took place at 12:53 CET, although scientists will have to wait until Friday for confirmation, as they lost contact with the Sun for several days due to the proximity of the probe to the Sun. The heat shield of the probe is so effective that its internal instruments remain at almost room temperature – approximately 29 degrees Celsius – when examining the outer atmosphere of the Sun, the so-called corona. Parker Solar Probe will also move at an enormous speed – roughly 690,000 kilometers per hour, writes AFP.
“No man-made object has ever passed this close to a star, so Parker Solar Probe will really be returning data from uncharted territory,” said Nick Pinkine, head of mission operations at the Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), which collaborates with Johns Hopkins University.
Tuesday’s flyby is the first of three record-close approaches to the Sun by the probe, with the next two — scheduled for March 22, 2025 and June 19, 2025 — expected to bring Parker Solar Probe within a similar distance again.
Source: vat.pravda.sk
