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On Christmas Eve , NASA ’s Parker Solar Probe will come closer than ever before to " touchingthe sun , " getting more than eight time closer than Mercury does to our home star . It will also smash its own speed platter , becoming the fastest homo - made object when it zoom past our home maven .
While the probe will make a few more final flybys in the next 12 month , it is unlikely to get much closer than it will on Tuesday .
The Parker Solar Will come within 3.8 million miles of the sun on Dec. 24. It is unlikely to get much closer to our home star before the end of its mission.
Parker was launched in 2018 with the finish of learning more about the sun ’s atmosphere , or corona , by flying through it , which the probeachieved for the first time in 2021 . To do this , the spacecraft has repeatedly slingshotted around our home headliner , as well as occasionally around Venus , to work up up enough speed and momentum to get progressively closer with every approach . To engagement , it has completed 21 solar slingshots .
The probe has already come nearer to the sun than any other ballistic capsule in history , reach a minimum distance of around 4.5 million miles ( 7.2 million kilometer ) from our rest home principal during close approaches in October 2023 and March this year . It has also previouslybroken the disc for fastest man - made physical object , maxing out at roughly 395,000 mph ( 635,000 km / h ) — or around 150 timesfaster than a rifle bullet .
But at 6:53 a.m. Eastern Standard Time on Dec. 24 , the investigation will come within 3.8 million mil ( 6.1 million klick ) of the sun and pass a top speed of around 435,000 mph ( 700,000 km / h ) , according toNASA . To do this , the craft will have to endure temperatures in nimiety of 2,550 degrees Fahrenheit ( 1,400 degrees Celsius ) , which it should be able to do thanks to the cheeseparing - indestructible heat buckler that protect the Sunday - front side of the investigation .
The probe has been gradually working its way closer to the sun by slingshotting itself around Venus to pick up speed.
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" This will be a monolithic accomplishment for all humanity,“Nour Raouafi , an astrophysicist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and project scientist for the Parker Solar Probe charge , antecedently say about the upcoming flyby . " This is tantamount to the moon landing place of 1969 . "
Closer than ever
Parker began its current tactic in early November , when the probe successfully completed its 7th and final schedule slingshot around Venus , Live Science ’s sister siteSpace.com reported . This " gravity assist " devote the spacecraft the last little button it call for to eventually break its own amphetamine record .
The upcoming flyby tops off a big twelvemonth for the investigation , which has alsoflown through a coronal mass ejection ( CME ) for the first timeand helped toshed young light on a decade - former mysterysurrounding how the corona discharge heats itself .
The close approach path also coincides with the explosive top in the sunlight ’s roughly 11 - year cycle of action , know assolar maximum , which has beenongoing for most of this yearand will likely go on well into 2025 . As a result , this close approach could also help us see more about what happens to thesun ’s charismatic field as it flips , and it could ultimately help scientists better betoken space weather that can impact Earth .
— take in ' coronal banner ' run off the sunlight in close - up telecasting from Parker Solar Probe
— NASA catch arresting , first of a kind images of Venus ' surface
— Weird country - size ' campfire ' on the sun revealed in near - ever picture
The Parker Solar Probe is expected to make up to four more close flybys of the sun in 2025 . It may get slightly closer to the Lord’s Day than it will now , but not by much .
After that , the investigation ’s thrusters will run out of fuel , and most of the dead ballistic capsule will eventually be pull aside by the sun . However , the hotness buckler could continue in orbit around our home star for thousands of year , Space.com antecedently reported .
