NASA Celebrates as Sun-Exploring Spacecraft Confirms It’s Still Alive

The Parker Solar Probe survived its extremely close encounter with the Sun, resuming contact with its mission operations team days after its scorching hot flyby.

Just before midnight Thursday, NASA’s Solar Probe sent a beacon tone back to Earth, indicating the spacecraft was in good health and operating normally, the space agency said. wrote In a blog update. The Parker Solar Probe went quiet during its closest approach On Tuesday, an expected communications blackout means the mission operations team won’t know if the spacecraft survived its Christmas Eve adventure.

The team can now rest easy knowing that The most difficult quest of the mission Successful During its closest approach, the Parker Solar Probe came within just 3.8 million miles (6.1 million kilometers) of the Sun’s surface. At that distance, the solar probe broke its own record for the closest solar approach by a spacecraft. For perspective, Earth is 93 million miles (149 million kilometers) from our host star — about 25 times farther from the Sun than Parker on Tuesday.

During its closest approach, the spacecraft was traveling at a record-breaking speed of 430,000 miles per hour (692,000 kilometers per hour), making it the fastest traveling human-made object. As the probe approached the fiery ball of plasma, it endured temperatures of about 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit (982.2 degrees Celsius). Because Parker gets so close to the Sun, it also needs an extra thick one heat shield To survive the scorching hot temperatures.

The mission is expected to send back detailed telemetry data on its status on Jan. 1, 2025, according to NASA. “This close-up study of the Sun allows the Parker Solar Probe to make measurements that help scientists better understand how material in this region is heated to millions of degrees, detect the source of the solar wind (a continuous stream of material ejected from the Sun), and discover “How energetic particles are accelerated to the speed of light,” NASA wrote Blog update. “Previous close passes have helped scientists identify the source of structures in the solar wind and map the outer boundaries of the Sun’s atmosphere.”

The Parker Solar Probe launched in August 2018 with a mission to touch the Sun. Before Tuesday’s record-breaking encounter with the star, the spacecraft made 21 close approaches to the Sun, coming within 4.51 million miles (7.26 million km) of the solar surface. With each approach, the solar probe inches its way closer to the Sun’s surface. In November, the Parker Solar Probe ran it The seventh and final flyby of VenusIt is being placed for its closest approach.

This week’s flyby is the first of three close approaches to the Sun made at the same distance. Each solar encounter feeds the mission with valuable data about our host star, which can elucidate the complex physics of our star and its dynamical phenomena – from Explosive eruption to this the windaffects the rest of the solar system.