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NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has survived an up-close encounter with the sun, officially coming closer to the fiery star than any other spacecraft before it.
The record-breaking solar approach took place Tuesday on Christmas Eve, but it wasn’t until Thursday that NASA officially got word from the uncrewed vehicle that the flyby was a success, the space agency said in a news release. Two days after the probe zipped within 3.8 million miles of the sun, it managed to transmit a beacon back to Earth indicating that it remains in good health and is operating as expected, NASA said.
The historic milestone is one NASA has been building toward ever since the Parker Solar Probe embarked in 2018 on a mission to study the sun’s outer atmosphere.
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Parker Solar Probe comes within record 3.8 million miles of sun
A signal from Parker received just before midnight Thursday confirmed the historic approach toward the sun, which the probe completed while hurtling at dizzying speeds of about 430,000 mph – fast enough to get from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C., in one second, according to NASA.
Mission operators at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland had been out of contact with the spacecraft since it sent a sent a transmission Dec. 20 revealing that it was operating as expected ahead of the flyby.
The spacecraft is expected next week to beam back to Earth detailed telemetry data on its status.
What is the Parker Solar Probe?
The Parker Solar Probe was launched Aug. 12, 2018 with the mission of coming within 4 million miles of the sun’s surface to study the formation of the solar wind.
The spacecraft is designed to endure temperatures of up to 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit as it flies through the sun’s elusive outermost layer, known as the corona. Nearly 10 feet tall and powered by a pair of solar arrays, the spacecraft and instruments are protected from the sun’s heat by a 4.5-inch-thick carbon-composite shield.
During its mission, Parker is providing data that could help scientists to forecast space-weather events that reach Earth.
The mission couldn’t come at a more critical time as the sun has reached the height of its 11-year-cycle, known as the solar maximum. During this period, the sun can unleash devastating space weather that, while a boon to aurora chasers who want to witness some northern lights, can also disrupt some Earth technology.
The craft is named for Dr. Eugene Parker, who in the 1950s proposed a number of concepts about how stars, including the sun, give off energy. Parker, the first living person to have a spacecraft named after him, died at age 94 in March 2022, according to NASA.
Will the Parker Solar Probe approach the sun again?
While the spacecraft is due to make two more flybys of the sun in 2025, its approach Tuesday will be its closest of all its 24 scheduled orbits.
Parker’s final two close approaches will be March 22 and June 19, 2025.
Within two months of launching, the Parker Solar Probe in October 2018 moved within 26.55 million miles of the sun’s surface, breaking the previous mark set by the Helios-2 spaecraft in 1976.
In 2021, the probe followed that up by becoming the first spacecraft to fly through the corona – sampling particles and magnetic fields there.
Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at [email protected]
