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Here Comes The Sun! NASA Reveals

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe is now closer to the sun than any spacecraft has ever gotten.

Parker on Monday surpassed the record of 26.6 million miles (43 million kilometers) set by Helios-2 back in 1976.

It will keep getting closer to the sun until it flies through the corona, or outer atmosphere, for the first time next week, passing within 15 million miles (24 million kilometers) of the solar surface.

Parker will make 24 close approaches to the sun over the next seven years, ultimately coming within just 3.8 million miles (6 million kilometers).

Launched in August, Parker is on track to set another record late Monday night.

It will surpass Helios-2′s speed record of 153,454 miles per hour (247,000 kilometers per hour), relative to the sun.

‘It’s been just 78 days since Parker Solar Probe launched, and we’ve now come closer to our star than any other spacecraft in history,’ said Project Manager Andy Driesman, from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland.

‘It’s a proud moment for the team, though we remain focused on our first solar encounter, which begins on Oct. 31.’

Nasa last week revealed a stunning image of Earth taken by its $1.5 billion (£1.1 billion) Parker Solar Probe on its historic journey toward the sun.

The picture, snapped around 27 million miles (43 million km) from our planet, shows Earth as a bright round spot surrounded by thousands of stars dotted throughout our corner of the galaxy.

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The Parker Solar Probe (PSP) is on a mission to ‘touch the sun’, and will be the first spacecraft to fly through the outermost part of the star’s atmosphere, known as its corona.

HOW WILL THE PARKER SOLAR PROBE GET SO CLOSE TO THE SUN?

The Parker Solar Probe mission will require 55 times more energy than would be needed to reach Mars, according to NASA.

It launched atop a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy, one of the most powerful rockets in the world, with a third stage attached.

But, its trajectory and speed are critical in getting to the correct orbit.

As Earth, and everything on it, are traveling at about 67,000 miles per hour in a direction that’s sideways to the sun, craft must be launched backward to cancel out the sideways motion, NASA explains.

The Parker probe is heading past the sun, so it will need to remove about 53,000 miles per hour, according to the space agency.

This will require a boost from the powerful Delta IV rocket, and several gravity assists from Venus to slow it down.

The probe will rely on a series of gravity assists from Venus to slow down its sideways motion, allowing it to get just 3.8 million miles away from the sun’s surface.

‘In this case, rather than speeding up the spacecraft, as in a typical gravity assist, Venus slows down its sideways motion so the spacecraft can get close to the sun,’ NASA explains.

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‘When it finally does get close, Parker Solar Probe will have lost much of its sideways speed, but gained a great deal of overall speed thanks to the sun’s gravity.

‘Parker Solar Probe will hurtle past the sun at 430,000 miles per hour.’

At its closest approach, it will get just 3.8 million miles from the surface of the sun, making it the only spacecraft to ever venture so close.

PSP’s mission is due to last seven years, with the probe set to fly up to 3.8 million miles (6.1 million km) from the sun’s surface – seven times closer than any spacecraft before it.

The average distance between the sun and Earth is 93 million miles (150 million km).

It is hoped that PSP can help scientists to better understand solar flares – brief eruptions of intense high-energy radiation from the sun’s surface that can knock out communications on Earth.

The craft will face extremes in heat and radiation and will reach speeds of up to 430,000 miles per hour (700,000 kph) at its closest flyby of the star.

The craft’s kit includes a white light imager called Whisper, which will take images of solar waves as the craft propels through them at high speeds.

To measure the ‘bulk plasma’ of solar winds – described by Nasa as the ‘bread and butter’ of the flares – a set of magnetic imaging equipment will also be stored on board.

 

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