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NASA’s Parker Solar Probe is preparing for its long-anticipated record-setting approach to the surface of the sun.
Hurtling around the sun at approximately 430,000 mph, the uncrewed vehicle is expected on Christmas Eve to come within 3.8 million miles of the sun. If it succeeds, the approach will bring the probe seven times closer to the fiery star’s surface than any other spacecraft before it, NASA said in a news release.
It’s a historic milestone that NASA has been building toward ever since the Parker Solar Probe embarked in 2018 on a mission to study the sun’s outer atmosphere. While the spacecraft is due to make two more flybys of the sun in 2025, its approach on Tuesday would be its closest of all its 24 scheduled orbits.
“No human-made object has ever passed this close to a star,” said Nick Pinkine, Parker Solar Probe mission operations manager, in a statement. “Parker will truly be returning data from uncharted territory.”
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Parker Solar Probe to make closest approach to sun
Parker sent a transmission last week revealing to mission operations that the spacecraft is operating as expected and is prepared to make its historic approach.
That orbit is expected to happen around 7 a.m. EST Tuesday as the probe whizzes at speeds fast enough to get from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C., in one second, according to NASA.
At that time, mission operators at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland will temporarily lost contact with the spacecraft. Parker will transmit another beacon Friday to confirm its health following the close flyby, NASA said.
“This is one example of NASA’s bold missions, doing something that no one else has ever done before to answer longstanding questions about our universe,” said Arik Posner, Parker Solar Probe program scientist at NASA’s Washington headquarters. “We can’t wait to receive that first status update from the spacecraft and start receiving the science data in the coming weeks.”
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 the course of 24 solar orbits, each of which lasts 88 days, 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.
Parker’s final two close approaches will be March 22 and June 19, 2025.
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.
Parker Solar Probe makes previous milestones
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.
On Sept. 27, 2023, the probe set dual records: making the closest approach of any vehicle to the sun, coming within 4.5 million miles of it; and reaching the fastest speed of any spacecraft traveling relative to the sun, traveling at 394,736 miles per hour, according to NASA.
Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at [email protected]
