NASA‘s Parker Solar Probe to Fly Closest to the Sun Ever on Christmas Day
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, the fastest spacecraft ever built, is set to swoop through the sun’s atmosphere on Christmas Day, coming within a record-breaking 6 million kilometers from the sun’s surface. This will take it into the sun’s outermost layer, known as the corona, which appears as a glowing halo around the sun during solar eclipses.
The probe, launched in 2018, will reach speeds of up to 700,000 kilometers per hour, or about 435 miles per second, as it races towards the sun. It’s the gravity of the sun that will allow it to reach such extreme speeds.
Scientists are eager to learn more about the corona, which has temperatures ranging from one to three million kelvin, far hotter than the sun’s surface. The cause of this high temperature is still unknown.
Parker is equipped with a lightweight heat shield that can withstand temperatures up to 1,377°C (2500°F). It’s 2.4 meters (7.9 feet) wide and will rotate to face the sun, shielding the instruments on the backside to keep them at a comfortable 27°C (81°F).
The current record for the closest approach to the sun was set by NASA’s Helios spacecraft in 1976, which reached 43 million kilometers (27 million miles) away.
