NASA's space probe 'Parker Solar Probe' successfully completed a flyby of the Sun, passing about 6.1 million km from the Sun and becoming the closest man-made object to the Sun in history.



On December 24, 2024, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced that the space probe

Parker Solar Probe successfully completed a flyby of the Sun, flying within 6.1 million km of the surface of the Sun.




Parker Solar Probe:: Parker Solar Probe Begins Record-Setting Closest Approach to the Sun
https://parkersolarprobe.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/Show-Article.php?articleID=205

NASA's Parker Solar Probe completes historic Christmas Eve flyby of the sun — but it could take days to know if it survived | Live Science
https://www.livescience.com/space/space-exploration/nasas-parker-solar-probe-completes-historic-christmas-eve-flyby-of-the-sun-but-it-could-take-days-to-know-if-it-survived

NASA's space probe, the Parker Solar Probe, was launched in 2018 to unravel the mysteries of the 'corona,' the high-temperature gas that surrounds the Sun, and the ' solar wind ,' a mass of high-speed particles. Its goal is to get closer to the Sun by making repeated swing-bys of Venus.

As a result, the Parker Solar Probe will be exposed to extremely high temperatures, but it is equipped with an 11cm thick 'shield' with a special insulation mechanism made of carbon fiber, and by autonomously controlling the attitude of the craft, it can protect itself from the harsh thermal energy of the sun and is said to be able to withstand high temperatures of up to 1371°C.

Why doesn't a probe approaching the sun melt from the heat? - GIGAZINE



Parker Solar Probe then passed perihelion , 3.8 million miles (about 6.1 million km) from the surface of the sun, at 6:53 a.m. Eastern Standard Time on December 24, 2024 (20:53 Japan time on December 24). Mission operators at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory then received a beacon signal from Parker Solar Probe at 7:20 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on December 24, 2024 (9:20 a.m. Japan time on December 25, 2024), indicating that all systems were operating normally.

The distance that the Parker Solar Probe flew from the sun this time is 6.1 million km, which is about one-tenth of the distance between the sun and Mercury. In addition to surpassing the record that the Parker Solar Probe achieved in 2023 of 'flying about 7.2 million km from the sun,' the flight achieved a speed of 430,000 miles per hour (690,000 km per hour), setting a record as the 'fastest man-made object in history.'

'No man-made object has ever passed so close to the Sun before, so Parker Solar Probe will be returning data from truly uncharted territory,' said Nick Pinkin, Parker Solar Probe mission operations manager at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.



Since it will be too close to the Sun to communicate with the Parker Solar Probe during its perihelion, NASA says the probe will begin transmitting signals indicating its location and health again on December 27, 2024, and will begin transmitting images collected during its solar flyby in early January 2025.

'Parker Solar Probe is an example of NASA's bold missions, doing things no one has done before to answer long-standing questions about our universe,' said Alice Pogner, NASA's Parker Solar Probe program scientist. 'We can't wait to get the first status updates from Parker Solar Probe and start receiving science data in the coming weeks.'

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