NASA’s Parker Solar Probe is already close to it Sun more than any other artifact. But later this year, the star-grazing spacecraft will get even closer, traveling faster than its previous top speed.
The Solar Observatory, which completed its 18th flyby of the Sun on December 28, 2023, is scheduled to approach our star again on December 24, 2024. During this encounter, it will come within about 3.8 million miles (6.1 million miles). The distance of the photosphere (in kilometers), which can be roughly thought of as the surface of the sun. (The Sun is a ball of gas, so it doesn’t actually have a surface.) To do so, the spacecraft must withstand temperatures of about 2,550 degrees Fahrenheit (1,400 degrees Celsius).
“We’re almost landing on the stars.” noor rawafisaid Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory astrophysicist and project scientist for the Parker Solar Exploration Mission. bbc news. “This will be a monumental achievement for all of humanity, comparable to the moon landing in 1969.”
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Parker Solar Probe: Higher, farther, faster in 2024
Parker launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in August 2018 and will make its current closest approach to the Sun on September 27, 2023, coming within 4.51 million miles (7.26 million km) of the Sun’s surface and traveling at a speed of about 1,000 meters. reached. 395,000 mph (636,000 km/h).
A flyby on Christmas Eve in 2024 will also break the spacecraft’s previous speed record. As Parker approaches the Sun, our star’s immense gravitational influence will accelerate the spacecraft to about 435,000 miles per hour (700,000 km per hour). this is, top speed This was the speed of a Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter jet and approximately 200 times faster than a bullet fired by a rifle, further cementing Parker’s legend as the fastest man-made object in history.
While these record-breaking achievements are impressive, Parker’s real goal is to discover more about the Sun. He has one special solar mystery that scientists hope to solve with this close encounter. Why is our star’s outer atmosphere more than 200 times hotter than the underlying surface?. The estimated temperature of the corona is over 2 million degrees Fahrenheit (1.1 million degrees Celsius), while the temperature of the photosphere is about 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit (5,500 degrees Celsius).
Most of the heat source from the sun is Nuclear fusion what’s happening at the center. The photosphere is at least about 3,100 miles (5,000 kilometers) closer to this core than the corona. The latter extends about 5 million miles (8 million km) from the Sun’s surface. It’s similar to roasting marshmallows over a campfire, which burn faster the further away you are from the fire.
To answer this question, Parker will fly through the corona and collect data. As part of this data collection, the solar probe flew through massive outflows of stellar material called “nebulae.” coronal mass ejection (CME) survived in September 2022, despite being one of the most powerful CMEs on record.
But all good things must come to an end. The mission is scheduled to end in 2025, after its 24th close approach to the Sun.