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 Photo voltaic 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 an in depth passage to the solar. Although 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, in line with the company.
Parker is not any stranger to smashing data. On Sept. 21, 2023, Parker hit a velocity of 394,736 miles per hour (635,266 kilometers per hour) to cement its document because the quickest object ever constructed by humanity.
Throughout 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 velocity document. For comparability, that’s round 300 instances sooner than the highest velocity of a Lockheed Martin jet fighter right here on Earth.
This unbelievable feat of velocity 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 Photo voltaic Probe continues its true mission
However breaking data is only a byproduct of Parker’s major mission: to be taught extra concerning the solar. Specifically, the spacecraft wanted to courageous the 1,800 levels Fahrenheit (980 levels Celsius) temperatures it should expertise to gather knowledge concerning the photo voltaic corona.
Scientists hope this knowledge may also help clear up a long-standing thriller concerning the solar’s outer environment, which has troubled them for many years. The so-called “coronal heating downside” refers to the truth that, regardless of being farther from the solar’s major supply of power (its core), the corona is far 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 major sequence stars just like the solar carry out nuclear fusion to forge hydrogen into helium and launch power, the warmer it will get.
All of the layers of the solar appear to stringently obey this rule — besides the corona, which may attain temperatures in extra of two million levels Fahrenheit (1.1 million levels Celsius). Round 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 is like discovering out this Christmas that your chestnuts solely roast if you drive them a mile away from an open hearth!
Subsequently, 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 remaining deliberate flyby will occur on June 19, 2025.
Throughout each of those approaches, the spacecraft will come virtually as near the solar because it did on Christmas Eve whereas touring at an identical velocity.
