NASA’s Parker Solar Probe scripted history with a record-breaking closest approach to the Sun on December 24. The feat was confirmed by the US space agency on Friday, December 27.
NASA said its Parker Solar Probe is on a mission “to touch” the Sun. It was launched in 2018 and has been gradually circling closer towards the sun, using flybys of Venus to gravitationally pull it into a tighter orbit with the sun.
The Parker Solar Probe survived its record-breaking closest approach to the solar surface on December 24, 2024. It flew into the sun’s outer atmosphere called the corona.
The spacecraft was out of contact with the Earth because of constraints on signal transmission while it was in close proximity to the sun. It was reported that the spacecraft was not able to send a signal back to its operators until December 27, indicating its condition after the flyby.
NASA finally received Parker Solar Probe’s “beacon tone” late December 26 (local time), confirming the spacecraft is safe.
“After seven days of silence, Parker has resumed communication with Earth, confirming it’s healthy after soaring just 3.8 million miles from the solar surface — the closest a human-made object has ever been to a star,” NASA said.
Parker Solar Probe has made history.
After seven days of silence, Parker has resumed communication with Earth, confirming it’s healthy after soaring just 3.8 million miles from the solar surface — the closest a human-made object has ever been to a star.https://t.co/YgLBDsRlGy pic.twitter.com/UMCNq0BzhA
— NASA Sun & Space (@NASASun) December 27, 2024
Simply put, it was the closest solar flyby in history.
Parker moved at a blistering pace of around 430,000 mph (690,000 kph), fast enough to fly from the US capital Washington to Japan’s Tokyo in under a minute. The spacecraft endured temperatures of up to 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit (982 degrees Celsius), according to the NASA website.
The spacecraft is expected to send back detailed telemetry data on its status on January 1.
What does the record-breaking fly mean?
NASA said that by getting closer to the sun than ever before, Parker Solar Probe will “reveal the secrets about our star that can help protect our technology and support our future exploration.”
This close-up study of the Sun allows Parker Solar Probe to take measurements that help scientists better understand how material in this region gets heated to millions of degrees.