NASA's parker solar probe set to make historic flyby closer to the sun than ever before

On Christmas Eve, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe will make its closest-ever approach to the Sun. The probe is expected to fly within just 3.8 million miles of the Sun’s surface. That’s incredibly close, especially when you consider that previous spacecraft have never gotten anywhere near this close!

At its closest point, the Parker Solar Probe will be speeding along at a jaw-dropping 430,000 miles per hour (690,000 km/h). This makes it the fastest spacecraft ever built. However, it will also be facing extreme heat and intense radiation as it flies through the Sun's outer atmosphere.

Launched in 2018, the Parker Solar Probe has already made many important discoveries about the Sun. In 2021, it became the first spacecraft to fly through the Sun’s outer atmosphere, called the corona. This was a huge milestone for NASA and a major step forward in space exploration.

The mission is focused on understanding the Sun better. Even though the Sun is crucial for life on Earth, it’s still full of mysteries. For example, scientists want to know why the Sun’s corona is so much hotter than the surface of the Sun itself. The corona is hundreds of times hotter, and no one fully understands why.

Another goal of the mission is to learn more about the solar wind. This is a constant stream of charged particles that the Sun sends out into space. These particles can sometimes cause solar storms, which can interfere with radio signals on Earth or even disrupt power grids. Understanding the solar wind is important to help predict these storms.

The Parker Solar Probe’s main objective is to get closer to the Sun than any spacecraft before it. This will give scientists a chance to learn more about the Sun’s behavior and how it affects our solar system. The probe has already completed more than 20 orbits around the Sun, and with every orbit, it gets closer.

When Parker flies by the Sun on Christmas Eve, it will pass within just 3.8 million miles of the Sun’s surface. To put that in perspective, if the Sun and Earth were at opposite ends of a football field, the Parker Solar Probe would be on the 4-yard line!

However, the probe will be out of contact with mission control during this close flyby. The heat and radiation are so intense that the spacecraft will not be able to communicate with Earth. NASA won’t know how the probe is doing until several days later when it sends a signal back to Earth. That signal will confirm the probe’s health and status after the flyby.

The Parker Solar Probe is built to handle the extreme conditions it faces. As the fastest spacecraft ever built, it’s designed to withstand the heat and radiation from the Sun. The probe is equipped with a special heat shield that can protect it from temperatures as high as 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit (1,371 degrees Celsius).

This heat shield is crucial because the Sun’s surface can reach temperatures of around 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit (5,500 degrees Celsius). The Sun’s corona, which Parker will fly through, is even hotter. This extreme heat could destroy a regular spacecraft, but Parker's heat shield allows it to survive.

The Parker Solar Probe will continue to orbit the Sun and get closer with each pass. Scientists hope this will help them gather data about the Sun’s corona and learn more about solar wind. This research could lead to better predictions of solar storms, which are important for protecting technology on Earth.