On December 24 at 1 p.m., the Parker solar probe will be closest to the Sun, a record for a spacecraft. This probe was launched in 2018 with the aim of studying the star and its atmosphere more closely.
Sent in 2018 by NASA to study the Sun and its atmosphere up close, the Parker Solar Probe will soon be at the closest distance to the Sun ever recorded by any other spacecraft. And, by chance, it will be right around Christmas time.
In fact, the probe will only be 6.1 million kilometers from the surface of the Sun on December 24 at 12:53 p.m. (Paris time). This distance is 7 times less than what all the other spacecraft sent by NASA have been able to achieve so far.
“No man-made object has ever passed this close to a star, so Parker will truly be sending back data from uncharted territory”enthuses Nick Pinkine, director of operations for the Parker Solar Probe mission at APL, in a NASA blog article.
The Parker solar probe will not send a signal until December 27: why?
During perihelion, that is to say while the probe is closest to the Sun, scientists will no longer receive signals from the spacecraft. On Friday, December 27, it should be able to transmit again, thus transmitting data, particularly on its state, after having passed so close to the star.
But why study the Sun and its atmosphere so closely? « We live in the Sun's atmosphere and this mission will help scientists better understand the Sun's impact on Earth. Parker's data will be key to understanding and, perhaps, predicting space weather. Space weather can alter satellite orbits, shorten their lifespans, or interfere with onboard electronics »explains NASA on the page of its site dedicated to this mission.
Arik Posner, Parker Solar Probe program scientist, declares: “This is an example of NASA's bold missions, doing something no one else has ever done before to answer long-standing questions about our universe. »
Everything you need to know about the star of the solar system, the Sun
