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The Parker Solar Probe survived its super close encounter with the Sun, resuming communication with its mission operations team just days after its hot flyby.
NASA’s solar probe transmitted a beacon tone to Earth just before midnight Thursday, indicating the spacecraft is in good health and operating normally, the space agency said. he wrote in a blog update. Parker Solar Probe had gone silent during its closest approach on Tuesday, an expected communications mishap that meant the mission operations team did not know whether or not the spacecraft survived its Christmas Eve dare.
The team can now rest easy knowing that the the most frightening quest of the mission it was successful. During its closest approach, Parker Solar Probe came just 3.8 million kilometers (6.1 million miles) from the Sun’s surface. At that distance, the solar probe broke its own record for the closest solar approach by a spacecraft. For perspective, Earth is 93 million miles (149 million kilometers) away from our host star, nearly 25 times farther from the Sun than Parker was on Tuesday.
During its closest approach, the spacecraft was traveling at a record speed of 430,000 miles per hour (692,000 kilometers per hour), making it the fastest a human object has ever traveled. During the probe’s closest approach to the fiery ball of plasma, it withstood a temperature of about 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit (982.2 degrees Celsius). Because Parker is so close to the Sun, it also needs extra thickness heat shield to survive torrid temperatures.
The mission is scheduled to return detailed telemetry data regarding its status on January 1, 2025, according to NASA. “This close study of the Sun allows Parker Solar Probe to take measurements that help scientists better understand how the material in this region heats up to millions of degrees, traces the origin of the solar wind (a continuous flow of material that escape from the Sun), and discover how energetic particles are accelerated to almost the speed of light,” wrote NASA in its blog update. “Previous close passes have helped scientists identify the origins of structures in the solar wind and map the outer boundary of the Sun’s atmosphere.”
The Parker Solar Probe was launched in August 2018 with the mission of touching the Sun. Before Tuesday’s record encounter with the star, the spacecraft made 21 close approaches to the Sun, coming within 4.51 million miles (7.26 million km) of the solar surface. With each approach, the solar probe came closer to the Sun’s surface. In November, the Parker Solar Probe performed its seventh and last flyby of Venusputting him for his closest approach.
This week’s flyby is the first of three close approaches to the Sun made at the same distance. Each solar encounter feeds the mission with valuable data about our host star, which could clarify the complex physics of our star and the manner of its dynamic phenomena – from its explosive eruptions to his wind– affects the rest of the solar system.
