The concept of touching the sun can be traced back to the ancient Greek myth of Icarus, but NASA scientists have made that idea a reality. On December 24, their Parker Solar Probe managed to travel just within 3.86 million miles (6.1 million kilometers) of the Sun’s surface, a new record. The probe, which is about the size of a small car, has now become the closest man-made object to the sun among all that our species has created.
“At speeds of up to 430,000 miles per hour (692,017 km per hour), the spacecraft will endure temperatures of up to 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit (982 degrees Celsius) as it flies through the Sun’s thin outer atmosphere, called the corona, to help scientists understand our understand circumstances better. nearest star,” the scientists write on their website. If the probe traveled around Earth at the same speed, it could move from Los Angeles to New York City in just 20 seconds.
In total, this is the 22nd time that the Parker Solar Probe has come close to the sun. According to program director Arik Posner, the solar explorations are part of NASA’s broader ambition to reach new frontiers in space exploration.
“This is an example of NASA’s bold missions, where we are doing something no one else has ever done before to answer long-standing questions about our universe,” Arik told Earth.com. Because the probe is currently very close to the Sun, scientists cannot communicate with it, but they hope to receive a beacon tone on December 27 to confirm that the probe has survived.
