On Christmas Eve, while a large part of planet Earth was having dinner with their loved ones, a historic milestone was being created about 150 million kilometers from our homes: a probe broke the record for approaching the Sun, reaching 6.1 million kilometers from its surface (which, in astronomical terms, is almost touching our star) at a devilish speed of 692,000 kilometers per hour.
The feat has been confirmed by NASA after two days without communication with the spacecraft, named Parker Solar Probe and launched in August 2018. «After its closest approach to the Sun, a record, NASA’s Parker solar probe has transmitted a signal to Earth indicating that “It is in good condition and works normally,” says Michael Buckley, from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, in the note that confirms that, indeed, one of the mission’s milestones, almost ‘touching’ our star, has been achieved. ha compliment.
The ‘call’ from the Parker Solar Probe occurred just before midnight on December 26, early this Friday morning in Spain. The silence was expected: the ship had to go around behind the Sun to re-contact the teams on Earth, something that was expected to take about two days. After confirmation that everything went well, the team expects to receive the full flyby information package (detailed telemetry data) in the new year, January 1.
The spacecraft, which has endured temperatures of more than a million degrees Celsius, has, however, had to keep its instruments safe from this burning heat, since for their proper functioning they have to remain at around 29 degrees Celsius. Quite a feat, since during its flight to the Sun the ship has also had to face temperatures of negative 200 degrees.
The mysteries of the Sun
The goal of getting so close to our star is to capture information to help scientists better understand one of the Sun’s biggest mysteries, which is why the corona (or Solar atmosphere) is much hotter than the surface of our star. something that, a priori, seems counterintuitive. Its task was also to track the solar wind, a flow of material that continually escapes from the Sun and that, for a reason not yet completely clear, accelerates to reach the speed close to light.
Although Parker Solar Probe has already discovered some structures behind the solar wind and has mapped the corona in previous passes somewhat further away, the ‘front row’ information from this record approach will undoubtedly be the origin of dozens of new studies. “No man-made object has ever passed this close to a star, so Parker will really be sending us data from uncharted territory,” said Nick Pinkine, operations manager for the Parker Solar Probe mission at APL before the flyby. “We are excited to hear from the spacecraft.”
The Parker Solar Probe is not the only spacecraft surrounding the Sun. It so happens that at the same time a European probe, the Solar Orbiter, is also in the surroundings of our star, in this case with the added objective of photographing by his poles for the first time. A unique moment for solar heliophysics.
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