Parker Solar Probe Makes History

On Christmas Eve NASA’s Solar Parker Probe successfully became the closest anything has ever got to the Sun.

The Parker Probe also made history as it is the fastest object ever built by humans! The probe is travelling so fast that it would be able to travel the distance from London to New York in a super fast 29 seconds because of the incredible gravitational forces it is being pulled by.

The Parker Solar Probe launched in August 2018 on a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket. In 2021, on its 8th orbit it first entered the Sun’s atmosphere. Since then it has been continuing to orbit the Sun, getting closer and closer. On Christmas Eve it completed its 22nd orbit of the Sun, flying within the corona, its super hot outer atmosphere. It was 3.8 million miles away from the surface. It is thought the probe will continue to orbit the Sun in 2025.

Until today it wasn’t known if the probe had survived being this close to the Sun. Data received today confirmed that it was successful and it had survived the temperatures of up to 982 degrees, travelling at speeds of 430 000 miles per hour.

The data sent back to Earth will give scientists lots of information about the Sun, including information about solar winds, the Sun’s magnetic field and the Sun’s atmosphere, which is hotter than the actual surface of the Sun.