WASHINGTON: NASA’s pioneering Parker Solar Probe is about to make its closest approach to the Sun on Christmas Eve, a record 6.2 million kilometers (3.8 million miles) from the surface.
Launched in August 2018, the spacecraft is on a seven-year mission to deepen scientific understanding of our star and help forecast space weather events that can affect life on Earth.
Its closest approach to date will occur on Tuesday, December 24 at 04:53 local time (11:53 GMT).
If the distance between the Earth and the Sun is equivalent to the length of an American football field, the spacecraft would be about four yards (meters) from the end zone at that point.
“This is an example of NASA’s bold missions, doing something no one has done before to answer long-standing questions about our universe,” Arik Posner, Parker Solar Probe program scientist, said in a statement.
“We look forward to receiving the first update on the spacecraft’s status and beginning to receive scientific data in the coming weeks.”
During this closest approach, known as perihelion, mission teams will lose direct contact with Parker, relying on a “beacon tone” this Friday to confirm the spacecraft’s status.
Although the heat shield will withstand scorching temperatures of approximately 870 to 930°C, the probe’s internal instruments will remain near room temperature (29°C) as it explores the Sun’s outer atmosphere, called the corona.
Not only will the temperatures be extreme, but Parker will also move at a breakneck pace of around 690,000 kilometers per hour, fast enough to fly from the US capital, Washington, to Tokyo in less than a minute.
“No man-made object has ever passed this close to a star, so Parker will truly return data from unexplored territory,” said Nick Pinkine, operations manager for the Parker Solar Probe mission at the Applied Physics Laboratory (APL). from Johns Hopkins in Laurel. Maryland.
“We are excited to hear from the spacecraft as it orbits the Sun.”
By venturing into these extreme conditions, Parker has helped scientists address some of the Sun’s biggest mysteries: how the solar wind originates, why the corona is hotter than the surface beneath it, and how ejecta occur. of coronal mass (massive clouds of plasma hurtling through space). – are formed.
This Christmas Eve flyby is the first of three record-setting close passes, and the next two, on March 22, 2025, and June 19, 2025, are expected to bring Parker Solar Probe to an equally close distance from the Sun.
