format(webp))
A historic probe makes its closest approach to the sun ever
Parker Solar Probe sets new record, flying within 3.8 million miles of the sun's surface at 430,000 mph, becoming the fastest human-made object. The successful flyby marks a major milestone in solar research.
In what was humanity's closest visit to a star, the Parker Solar Probe flew by the sun on Tuesday, smashing the previous mark and passing within 3.8 million miles (6.1 million kilometers) of the solar surface.
Just before midnight on Thursday, the spacecraft sent a signal to the mission operations team at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, allowing them to confirm the flyby was successful Friday morning.
The mission team was aware that during the spacecraft's closest approach to the sun, it would not be able to communicate with it. The team will now wait for Parker to provide more specific information regarding the condition of the spacecraft, which is scheduled to return to Earth on January 1.
At 430,000 miles per hour (692,000 kilometers per hour), which NASA claims is quick enough to get from Washington, DC, to Tokyo in less than a minute. In a NASA Science Live presentation on YouTube on December 16, the agency revealed that the probe would become the fastest man-made object in history as a result of the swift flyby.
Since its August 12, 2018 launch, the mission has been preparing for this momentous occasion, which was attended by the probe's namesake, Dr. Eugene Parker, an astronomer who helped establish the branch of sun research known as heliophysics.
What's Your Reaction?
