
NASA announced on Friday that its Parker Solar Probe is “safe” and operating as expected after making history as the closest human-made object to approach the Sun.
On 24th of December the spacecraft passed just 3.8 million miles (6.1 million km) from the Sun’s surface, venturing into its outer atmosphere, the corona. This groundbreaking mission aims to deepen scientists’ understanding of Earth’s closest star.
During the closest approach, known as perihelion, direct contact with the probe was temporarily lost. However, the operations team at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland received a status signal just before midnight on Thursday. Detailed telemetry data from the spacecraft is expected to arrive on 1st of January.
Traveling at a staggering speed of 430,000 mph (692,000 kph), the probe withstood extreme temperatures of up to 1,800°F (982°C). NASA highlighted that these close encounters allow the spacecraft to gather critical data on how solar material heats to millions of degrees, the origins of the solar wind, and how energetic particles accelerate to near-light speed.
Launched in 2018, the Parker Solar Probe uses flybys of Venus to gradually tighten its orbit around the Sun. This historic flyby was the first of three record-setting approaches, with the next two scheduled for 22nd of March 2025, and 19th of June 2025, bringing the probe back to similarly close distances.
These observations will provide unprecedented insights into the Sun’s behavior, advancing our knowledge of solar phenomena and their impact on Earth.