NASA Confirms Sun Discovery Spacecraft Is Still Alive

The Parker Solar Probe survived its super close encounter with the Sun, regaining contact with the mission operations team just days after its fiery flyby.

NASA’s solar probe transmitted a beacon tone to Earth shortly before midnight Thursday, indicating that the spacecraft is safe and operating normally. he wrote in a blog update. The Parker Solar Probe went quiet during its closest approach An expected communications outage on Tuesday meant the mission operations team would not know if the spacecraft had survived its Christmas Eve stunt.

The team can now rest easy knowing that the scariest quest of the mission it was 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 this distance, the solar probe broke the record for the closest approach to the sun by a spacecraft. For perspective, Earth is 93 million miles (149 million kilometers) from our star — about 25 times farther from the Sun than Parker was 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 ever traveled by a man-made object. During the probe’s closest approach to the burning plasma ball, it endured temperatures of about 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit (982.2 degrees Celsius). Because Parker is so close to the Sun, it also needs extra thickness heat protector to live in scorching hot temperatures.

The mission is expected to send back detailed telemetry data on its status on January 1, 2025, according to NASA. “This close study of the Sun allows the Parker Solar Probe to make measurements that help scientists better understand how the material in this region is heated to millions of degrees, tracing the origin of the solar wind (the continuous flow of material escaping the Sun). , and discover how energetic particles are accelerated to near the speed of light,” NASA writes. blog update. “Previous close passes have helped scientists pinpoint the origin of structures in the solar wind and map the outer boundary of the Sun’s atmosphere.”

Parker Solar Probe was launched in August 2018 on 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 as close as 4.51 million miles (7.26 million km) to the sun’s surface. With each approach, the solar probe got closer to the surface of the Sun. In November, Parker Solar Probe launched The seventh and last flight of Venusstill preparing him for his closest approach.

This week’s flyby is the first of three close approaches to the Sun at the same distance. Each solar encounter feeds the mission with valuable information about our host star, which can elucidate the complex physics of our star and its dynamical phenomena. explosive eruptions for him the wind— Affects the rest of the solar system.