Christmas is approaching and on New Year's Eve, December 24, 2024, NASA's Parker Solar Probe mission will take a crucial new step in the exploration of the solar atmosphere. The American space agency is preparing to carry out its 21st orbit around the Sun: this will be a historic record for proximity to our star.
- NASA's Parker probe will be closest to the Sun on December 24, just 6.1 million kilometers from the solar surface
- The gravity of Venus will be used by the Parker probe to gradually approach the Sun
- Data collected during the mission will be shared on December 27 by NASA
The exceptional orbit will position the probe just 6.1 million kilometers from the solar surfaceat the edge of its outer crown. Nick Pinkine, mission operations manager at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratorydeclares that this unprecedented proximity will make it possible to collect unprecedented data in an area still unexplored by humanity. His comments were shared in a NASA press release.
NASA will get as close as possible to the Sun with the Parker probe
The Parker probe, launched in 2018 as part of the program « Living with a Star »continues its mission to study the mysteries surrounding the temperature of the solar corona. This is a region that constitutes the outer atmosphere of our star and extends over several million kilometers.
The probe's trajectory was planned for 24 orbits in total and strategically uses Venus' gravity as a mechanism for progressive rapprochement towards the Sun. Gravitational assist takes place at the farthest points of Parker's orbit to gradually reduce its distance from the star.
NASA will provide an update on the status of the probe on December 27, to detail the results of this historic moment and the scientific data collected. The mission will continue until 2025, the date set for the end of operations.
In parallel with this American mission, the European Space Agency (ESA) launched its Proba-3 with a different approach to the study of the Sun. The project involves using two satellites in a coordinated manner to create artificial solar eclipses. A method which significantly extends the duration of observation of the solar corona. Usually, this possibility is limited to a few minutes during rare natural eclipses observable from Earth.
