Parker Solar Probe reports back after rendezvous with the sun
On Christmas Eve, NASA's Parker Solar Probe raced past the sun at a distance of six kilometers. It seems to have returned safely during the night.
Artist's impression of the Parker Solar Probe
(Image: NASA)
The Parker Solar Probe has apparently survived its closest approach to our home star and reported back on Friday. This was announced by the US space agency, which added that the corresponding signal was received during the night. The probe was previously unreachable for days, and on Christmas Eve it passed the sun at a distance of only around 6 million kilometers, at a speed of around 690,000 kilometers per hour. There it has to withstand temperatures of 1000 degrees Celsius. No man-made device has ever traveled in these regions before. The probe is due to send detailed data of the flyby to Earth on January 1.
For better protection from the sun
The Parker Solar Probe was launched in mid-August 2018 and has been orbiting the sun in ever-closer orbits ever since. Its purpose is to study the star from the closest distance yet. Over several years, it was guided closer and closer to Venus in more than 20 orbits with a total of seven flybys. Directly from the sun's corona, one of its aims is to find out why this outermost layer of the sun's atmosphere, at several million degrees Celsius, is significantly hotter than the surface at around 5000 degrees Celsius. It will also clarify how the particles of the solar wind are accelerated. In this way, it should also help to better protect our technology in the event of solar eruptions, for example.
If it is confirmed that everything went smoothly during the most recent flyby, the probe will continue on the same elliptical path and approach the sun again on 22 March and 19 June at a distance of around six million kilometers. It will then have completed its primary mission and what will happen afterwards is still being discussed. However, researchers hope that the probe will be able to send data from the direct vicinity of the sun for years to come. The team responsible for operating the solar probe is based at the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University in the US state of Maryland.
(mho)