NASA spacecraft breaks record for closest approach to the Sun.

NASA's Parker probe continues to surpass new milestones as it plunges deeper toward the Sun's surface, providing further insight into the star's atmosphere and its influence on space weather.

Simulation of the Parker spacecraft flying through the Sun's atmosphere. Image: NASA

On September 27, the Parker probe broke its own record by approaching the Sun at a distance of 7.26 million km/h, according to NASA. This 17th close approach marks the midpoint of the probe's flyby of the Sun, which lasted from September 22 to October 3. Thanks to the gravitational pull from Venus last August, the probe reached a speed of 635,266 km/h, solidifying its position as the fastest man-made object in history, according to Gizmodo.

Since its launch in August 2018, the Parker spacecraft has continuously set numerous records. It broke the 1976 record of the Helios 2 spacecraft, becoming the closest man-made object has ever come to the Sun. In addition, Parker is also the first spacecraft to fly through the Sun's outermost atmosphere, the corona.

Designed with advanced heat shields, the probe's mission is to study the solar corona and collect crucial data. The overall goal is to discover the structure of the Sun, the solar corona, and the origin of the solar wind. Such information is extremely important because solar processes can affect space weather, threaten satellites, communication networks, and even power grids on Earth.

In early September, Parker flew through one of the most intense coronal mass ejections (CMEs) ever observed. This event validated a two-decade-old hypothesis that CMEs interact with interplanetary dust, aiding in the prediction of space weather.

According to NASA, despite flying close to the Sun, the Parker spacecraft continues to maintain good condition. The spacecraft will transmit current status data to the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory on October 1st, followed by key scientific data on the solar wind, helping researchers better understand the complex dynamics of the star in the system.

An Khang (According to Gizmodo )

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