NASA’s Parker Solar Probe continues its historic journey around the Sun and is preparing for another record-breaking approach this week. On December 24, at 13:53 Kyiv time, the spacecraft’s orbit will bring it to a distance of just 6.1 million km from the Sun’s surface. This will be the closest this probe or any other has ever come to the Sun.
This event will mark the completion of Parker’s 22nd orbit of the Sun and the first of three final close flybys planned for its mission. Launched in 2018, the spacecraft is expected to complete a total of 24 orbits around our star.
«No human-made object has ever passed this close to a star, so Parker will truly be transmitting data from uncharted territory,” said Nick Pinkin, Parker Solar Probe mission operations manager at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. «We look forward to receiving feedback from the spacecraft as it circles the Sun again».
At the moment of its closest pass to the Sun, the Parker probe will be traveling at a speed of about 692 thousand km/h. It will signal the team to confirm its position on December 27, when it is far enough away from the Sun to re-establish communication.
Source: Engadget