NASA's Parker Solar Probe has just broken the records for the fastest man-made object and the closest object to the Sun.
Launched in August 2018, the solar probe is designed to explore the sun's outer atmosphere, unraveling some of the mysteries lurking within. A set of four instruments on board will help scientists understand how the solar corona and solar wind affect the Earth and the rest of the solar system.
Besides science, Parker is also in orbit around the Sun, which makes it really very fast and brings it close enough to 'touch' the Sun.
Parker broke his own records for speed and proximity to a flaming star, according to flight control data from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory during its January 29 flyby.
The flyby was the probe's fourth approach to the Sun ('perihelion'), and in the early hours of February 1, a car-sized spacecraft sent a 'status A' signal to Earth, the best of four possible signals. Essentially, Parker threw up a finger to say, 'I survived.'
Parker set two records in November 2018:
- Fastest man-made object: 247,000 km / h
- Spaceship closest to the Sun: 42.7 million kilometers
But these records have now been broken. Entries updated:
- Fastest man-made object: 393,044 km / h.
- Spaceship closest to the Sun: 18.6 million kilometers
Parker will continue to break the record through 2024 as he gets closer to the Sun. Shielded by a state-of-the-art heat shield, the probe will eventually reach 6.8 million kilometers from the sun's 'surface'.
In December 2019, the first batch of probe data was published in the journal Nature, 'pulling back' the (incredibly bright) curtain on charged particles and plasma dynamics in the Sun's outer atmosphere.
This is already a good year to study the sun.
On January 29, another surveyor, the Daniel K. Inoue Telescope in Hawaii, captured the highest resolution images of the sun's surface. The telescope, which is about 80-plus million kilometers farther from the Sun than NASA's Parker probe, is the most powerful solar telescope ever built, and it isn't even connected to the grid yet. Full operation is due to start in July.
The European Space Agency will launch the Solar Orbiter on February 9. This spacecraft will not get as close to the Sun as Parker, but it will help us understand how the star affects our solar system.
Sources: Photo: NASA
