NASA’s probe Parker flew close to the Sun – and survived the blast unscathed

Solar probe Parker is the first man-made device to visit the Sun.

That’s what we can say. Parkes, you can see the sun through the Sun’s outermost gaseous atmosphere, or corona, on Christmas Day in the morning Finnish time.

It also survived the loaves. Parker sent the signal on Friday Finnish time. It was a sign to the US space agency NASA that Parker’s equipment could withstand the burn of the flyby.

Parker flew at its closest at Christmas, only about 6.1 million kilometers from the surface of the Sun.

In comparison, the average distance of the Earth from the Sun is about 149 million kilometers. If the Sun and the Earth were only one meter apart, Parker would pass four centimeters from the surface of the Sun, compare British Broadcasting Corporation BBC.

Rate was wild, about 192 kilometers per second. It does almost 700,000 kilometers per hour.

Parker used to get help from other parts of space for his wild speed. The gravitational field of the planet Venus gave the probe more speed.

The US space agency Nasa says Parker is the fastest man-made device. In Earth’s atmosphere, Parker would have flown from New York’s airspace to Los Angeles in less than 30 seconds.

Parker got to wild speeds already in July. Even then it passed the Sun safely further away.

From previous trips near the Sun NASA has compiled a video.

“We’re really going into the unknown,” said NASA’s science flight director Nicky Fox newspaper for The New York Times under Christmas.

“No instrument has flown through the gas atmosphere of a star, and no probe will fly to a star after Parker, not for a long time.”

“It’s like landing on a star,” an astrophysicist previously described the flight to the BBC Nour Raouafiwho is a researcher on the Parker flight.

He even dared to compare the close flight with the first hearing in July 1969.

Christmas the flyby was already the probe’s 22nd pass close to the Sun. With each revolution, it has flown closer and closer to the surface of the Sun.

Now we are already moving at the risk limits. Of course, Parker’s devices are well protected with heat-resistant layers of carbon fibers. They can heat up to over 980 degrees during the flyby.

Parker isn’t designed to run around. The heat shield of the devices is more than 2.4 meters wide and more than 11 centimeters thick. It is designed to withstand temperatures of over 1,370 degrees Celsius.

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Astrophysicist Nour Raouafi dared to compare the close flight to the BBC even with the first hearing in July 1969.

Nasa sent Parker on its way in August 2018. For the first time it flew close to the Sun’s gas atmosphere in December 2021.

Parker argued inside the enormous hot plasma of the Sun. It forms the gas ring that surrounds the Sun. It extends all the way to 8.3 million kilometers into space.

The gaseous atmosphere is much hotter than the surface of the Sun itself. The temperature of the corona can rise to over a million degrees Celsius, while the temperature of the Sun’s surface is over 5,500 degrees.

Parker can look for an explanation for why the Sun’s Corona is so much hotter. Parker also measures the Sun’s magnetic field. The information can perhaps explain why the Sun’s activity follows a period of about 11 years. The chemical composition of the Sun is also one of the mysteries.

Christmasy the flyby was Parker’s last. Parker will try one more time in 2025, maybe four times.

After 2025, its guiding nozzles and rockets will run out of fuel. Before that, the air traffic control turns the sonar so that its equipment is exposed to the Sun’s radiation.

This is how Parker’s equipment is destroyed, but its thermal protection can last. It can orbit the Sun for a long time, even millions of years.

Scientific data will only start coming to NASA air traffic control in January 2025.

“During flybys, Parker collects data on many questions related to the Sun itself, but also to other stars and the entire universe,” says the astronomer Arik Posner According to the Science Alert website.

Posner is one of NASA’s Parker flight researchers.

“We can’t wait to see all the data we can get from near the Sun.”

Updated December 30 at 11:15: The space probe survived the flyby. Parker sent the signal on Friday Finnish time.

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