2024-07-08 05:42:25
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has successfully completed its 20th close approach to the Sun, setting a new speed record. Scientists are hopeful of more successful close approaches to the Sun over the next year.
This was reported by the SciTechDaily portal.
According to a statement from NASA, the Parker probe, launched in 2018, successfully completed its 20th close approach to the Sun on June 30. Within days of the event, scientists received a signal from the spacecraft confirming that all of its instruments were functioning properly and that there was no damage.
During its latest close approach to the Sun, NASA’s Parker probe equaled its previous distance record of 7.26 million kilometers from the star’s surface. That’s less than 5% of the Sun’s distance from Earth, which is about 150 million kilometers.
By comparison, the first planet from the sun, Mercury, is 37 million kilometers from the sun. During this pass, Parker also set a new speed record, reaching 635.266 kilometers per hour, the fastest speed ever achieved by a spacecraft.
The Parker Solar Probe will make four more close encounters with the Sun over the next year. The primary mission of the Parker Solar Probe is to study the Sun’s corona, the star’s outer atmosphere. Scientists are also seeking to better understand the solar wind, a stream of charged particles emanating from the Sun, and its impact on the entire Solar System.
Astrophysicists hope to track the sources of the high-energy particles that form the solar wind. By gathering more data on this phenomenon, astrophysicists hope to pinpoint the boundaries of the solar system.
This information will also be useful for improving forecasts of space weather, which sometimes causes radio blackouts on Earth and problems with satellites in orbit. In September 2023, the Parker Solar Probe became the first spacecraft in history to successfully fly through a coronal mass ejection from the Sun.
Earlier, Cursor wrote that during the last two passes by Io, the Juno probe provided NASA scientists with several amazing discoveries. Using detailed images obtained by the probe, scientists were able to study two impressive features on the surface of Jupiter’s satellite: a steep mountain and islands located in the middle of a lava lake.
2024-07-08 05:42:25