NASA spacecraft breaks record for closest flight to the Sun

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

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

On September 27, Parker broke its own record when it approached the Sun at a distance of 7.26 million km/h, according to NASA. This 17th close approach marked the midpoint of the spacecraft's solar flyby, which lasted from September 22 to October 3. Thanks to a gravitational assist 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, Parker has continued to set records. It surpassed the 1976 record of the Helios 2 spacecraft, becoming the closest a 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 an advanced heat shield, the probe’s mission is to study the solar corona and collect important data. The overall goal is to discover the structure of the Sun, the corona, and the origin of the solar wind. Such information is extremely important because solar processes can affect space weather, threatening satellites, communication networks, and even power grids on Earth.

In early September, Parker flew through one of the most violent coronal mass ejections (CMEs) ever observed. The event validated a two-decade-old theory that CMEs interact with interplanetary dust, helping to predict space weather.

Despite its close proximity to the Sun, Parker continues to maintain good health, according to NASA. The spacecraft will transmit its current status data to the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory on October 1, followed by scientific data mainly 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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