NASA’s Parker Solar Probe is making history once more as it prepares for another record-breaking approach to the sun. Scheduled for December 24 at 6:53AM ET, the spacecraft will reach its closest distance to the sun yet, coming within just 3.8 million miles of the solar surface. This will be the closest any probe has ever been to the sun, marking a significant milestone for the Parker Solar Probe’s mission.
The upcoming approach will be the completion of the probe’s 22nd orbit around the sun, with three final closest flybys planned for the mission. Launched in 2018, the Parker Solar Probe is on track to complete a total of 24 orbits around our star.
Nick Pinkine, Parker Solar Probe mission operations manager at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, expressed excitement for the upcoming data collection in uncharted territory. “No human-made object has ever passed this close to a star, so Parker will truly be returning data from uncharted territory,” Pinkine said in a statement on NASA’s blog.
During this record-breaking approach, the Parker Solar Probe will be traveling at a speed of about 430,000 miles per hour. The spacecraft will ping the team on December 27 to confirm its health once it is far enough from the sun to resume communications.
This latest achievement for the Parker Solar Probe showcases NASA’s dedication to exploring the mysteries of our solar system and beyond. Stay tuned for more groundbreaking discoveries from this groundbreaking mission.
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