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NASA ’s Parker Solar Probe has already gotten closer tothe sunthan any other human - made aim . Yet , later this twelvemonth , the wizard - skimming spacecraft will get even closer — all while traveling faster than its previous top speed .
The solar observatory — which , on Dec. 28 , 2023 , completed its 18th confining flyby of the sun — will once again approach our star on Dec. 24 , 2024 . During this encounter , it will occur within around 3.8 million miles ( 6.1 million klick ) of the photosphere , which can be or so considered the sun ’s surface . ( The sunshine is a orb of gun , so it does n’t really have a surface . ) To do so , the ballistic capsule will endure temperature of around 2,550 degrees Fahrenheit ( 1,400 degrees Celsius ) .
An illustration shows the Parker Solar Probe as it approaches the sun.
" We are fundamentally almost landing on a star,“Nour Raouafi , an astrophysicist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and project scientist for the Parker Solar Probe mission , toldBBC News . " This will be a monolithic achievement for all humanity . This is equivalent to the Moon landing of 1969 . "
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Parker Solar Probe: Higher, farther, faster in 2024
Parker establish from Cape Canaveral , Florida , in August 2018 , and on Sept. 27 , 2023 , it made its current close approach to the sun , do within 4.51 million miles ( 7.26 million km ) of the solar surface and reach a f number of around 395,000 mph ( 636,000 km / h ) .
The Christmas Eve 2024 close flyby will also infract the probe ’s previous pep pill record . As Parker gets close to the sun , the immense gravitative influence of our mavin will accelerate the ballistic capsule to around 435,000 mph ( 700,000 km//h ) . That ’s around 300 times as tight as thetop speedof a Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter jet and about 200 sentence as tight as a hummer fire by a rifle , further cementing Parker ’s legacy as the fastest human - made object ever build .
Although these phonograph recording - break up achievements are staggering , Parker ’s unfeigned aim is to get word more about the sunshine . There is one particular solar mystery that scientist are hoping to crack with this flyby : why our champion ’s outer atmospheric state is over 200 time hotter than the implicit in surface . The St. Elmo’s fire ’s judge temperature outstrip 2 million F ( 1.1 million C ) , while the photosphere is around 10,000 F ( 5,500 C ) .
That ’s confound , because the source of the Lord’s Day ’s heat is mostly thenuclear fusionoccurring at its affectionateness . The photosphere is is around 3,100 nautical mile ( 5,000 klick ) closer to this burden , at the least , than the corona is ; the latter exsert around 5 million miles ( 8 million kilometre ) from the sun ’s surface . It would be like toasting marshmallows on a campfire and finding that the treats burn more quick when they were farther from the fire .
— The sun ’s violent corposant like it ’s never been witness before
— 15 polarity the sun is gearing up for its explosive peak — the solar maximum
— Solar maximum could hit us hard and sooner than we thought . How severe will the sun ’s disorderly peak be ?
To respond this question , Parker will aviate through the corona and collect data . As part of this data collection , the solar probe fly through a massive escape of stellar fabric called acoronal great deal ejection(CME ) in September 2022 and make it , despite it being one of the most powerful CMEs on phonograph recording .
All good thing must come to an end , though . The commission is scheduled to complete in 2025 , after the investigation ’s 24th flyby of the sun .
