A NASA spacecraft is set to make history this Christmas Eve as the closest man-made object to the sun.
Tomorrow at 11:53 PM Japan time, the Parker Solar Probe will pass within just 3.8 million miles (6.1 million km) of the Sun’s surface.
This is more than eight times closer than the distance between our home star and our closest planet, Mercury.
Once it reaches its closest point, the spacecraft will reach a staggering speed of 430,000 miles per hour (692,000 kilometers per hour), making it the fastest man-made object in history.
In a moment that has been compared to the 1969 moon landing, Parker will “touch” the surface of the sun to collect vital data.
During its short flight, the spacecraft will pass through the sun’s super-hot exosphere, called the corona, which is the source of solar storms that can cause chaos on Earth.
Parker probes can withstand temperatures in excess of 1,400 °C (2,550 °F), but a nearly indestructible heat shield allows them to withstand extreme conditions.
“No man-made object has ever come this close to a star, so Parker is a truly uncharted space for data,” said Nick Pinkin, Parker Solar Exploration mission operations manager at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL). will be returned,” he said.
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe (pictured) will make history on Christmas Eve as it becomes the closest man-made object to the sun.
The Parker Solar Probe launched from Cape Canaveral in August 2018 before setting off on a 93 million mile (149 million km) journey to the Sun.
The goal was to collect more data about the Sun’s corona by flying as close as possible through the star’s atmosphere.
Gravity is so strong at this distance that the spacecraft would have to move incredibly fast to avoid slipping into the center of the sun.
To do this, the spacecraft was repeatedly “slingshotted” around the Sun and Venus, gradually increasing its speed with each pass.
In 2021, Parker became the first to successfully travel through the solar corona, immersing himself in a region where temperatures can reach more than 1 million degrees Celsius for up to five hours.
Since then, Parker has completed 21 solar slingshots, and tomorrow the rover will break his own records for both speed and distance.
After completing its seventh orbit of Venus in November, Parker is now using its “gravity assist” to fly seven times closer to Venus than any other spacecraft.
Passing just 3.8 million miles (6.1 million km) away, Parker will collect particles from the corona in a special device called a solar probe cup.
The Parker spacecraft will pass within 3.8 million miles (6.1 million kilometers) of the sun’s surface and travel at a speed of 30,000 miles (692,000 kilometers) per hour.
At the same time, Parker will surpass the previous speed record of 395,000 miles per hour (635,000 kilometers per hour), NASA said.
At top speed, the spacecraft will travel 300 times faster than a Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter jet, or 200 times faster than a rifle bullet.
“This is an example of a bold mission for NASA, doing something no one has ever done before to answer age-old questions about the universe,” said Arik Posner, NASA’s Parker Solar Exploration Program Scientist. ”.
To avoid melting during that time, Parker Solar Probes are designed to withstand incredibly high temperatures.
The body of the probe itself is protected by a 2.4-meter (8-foot) wide heat shield made of a type of carbon foam.
This shield is only 11 cm (4.5 inches) thick, but its material composition makes it nearly indestructible.
“One yard behind the main body of the spacecraft, it’s almost room temperature,” Johns Hopkins University APL explained in a mission briefing.
“And all of its systems will need to work perfectly for Parker to collect data from this dynamic environment near stars where no spacecraft has dared to travel before.”
As it passes, the spacecraft will collect particles from the sun in a “solar probe cup” (pictured) made of titanium-zirconium-molybdenum, a metal alloy with a melting point of 2,349 degrees Celsius (4,260 degrees Fahrenheit).
How often do superflares occur?
Previous estimates suggested that superflares occur only once every 1,000 to 10,000 years.
However, due to data limitations, these estimates used only a small set of stars with no nearby stars.
The new paper found that over four years of data, 2,889 superflares occurred in 2,527 56,450 Earth-like stars.
In other words, superflares occur once every 100 years.
Measurements of radioactive elements on Earth indicate that superflares occur every 1,500 years.
But researchers argue that studies on Earth are unreliable because superflares don’t necessarily leave radioactive signatures.
Solar probe cups, on the other hand, are made from titanium-zirconium-molybdenum, a metal alloy with a melting point of 2,349°C (4,260°F).
But the spacecraft’s mission is about more than just traveling at high speeds and enduring high temperatures.
The data it brings back could make a big difference in humanity’s defenses against catastrophic solar flares.
Scientists have been unable to see inside the sun’s corona thanks to the intense temperatures and powerful magnetic fields.
However, this region is the source of plasma and magnetic fields that cause solar flares and coronal mass ejections.
As the sun enters its solar maximum this year, scientists say the effects of superflares that could cause global power outages and damage satellite networks could be quite some time away. I’m warning you.
NASA says the Parker Solar Probe’s data collection from this region will help scientists make more accurate predictions about space weather.
It could buy Earth precious time to protect its most vulnerable systems in the event of a dangerous solar flare.
This data helps scientists understand what’s happening inside the Sun’s super-hot atmosphere. This could help predict dangerous solar flares that could cause massive disruption to Earth (stock image)
“We can’t wait to receive our first status updates from the spacecraft and begin receiving science data in the coming weeks,” Posner said.
Parker will send a beacon on Friday, Dec. 27, to confirm that it survived the flyby and will send more data soon.
After that, the spacecraft is expected to make four more flybys in 2025, but none as close as tomorrow.
And while the spacecraft will eventually be torn apart by the sun’s gravity, its heat shield could continue orbiting for thousands of years.
How will the Parker Solar Probe get close to the Sun?
According to NASA, the Parker Solar Probe mission required 55 times the energy needed to reach Mars.
The rocket launched with a third stage atop the United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy, one of the world’s most powerful rockets.
But its trajectory and speed were critical to reaching the correct trajectory.
The Earth and everything on it is moving laterally to the Sun at about 67,000 miles per hour, so the spacecraft was launched backwards to counteract the lateral motion, NASA explains. .
According to the space agency, the Parker spacecraft had to travel at about 53,000 miles per hour as it passed the sun.
This required a boost from the powerful Delta IV rocket and some gravity assistance from Venus to slow it down.
The spacecraft will use a series of gravitational assists from Venus to slow its lateral motion, allowing it to reach just 3.8 million miles from the Sun’s surface.
“In this case, rather than increasing the spacecraft’s speed as in typical gravity assists, Venus slows its lateral motion to allow the spacecraft to move closer to the Sun,” NASA explains. I’m doing it.
“During its final approach, Parker Solar Probe loses a lot of lateral speed, but thanks to the Sun’s gravity, its overall speed increases significantly.
“Parker Solar Probe hurtles past the Sun at 430,000 miles per hour.”
At its closest approach, it will be just 3.8 million miles from the Sun’s surface, making it the only spacecraft ever to get this close.
