NASA's Parker probe is preparing to get close to the Sun, spending Tuesday, on Christmas Eve, closer to the star than it has ever done before in order to study its atmosphere.
Launched in August 2018 for a seven-year mission, Parker must deepen scientific knowledge of our star in particular in order to unravel the secret of solar storms, which can have an impact on terrestrial communications.
On Tuesday, December 24, at 11:53 a.m., the probe will be 6.2 million kilometers from the surface of the star, a proximity record.
“This is an example of NASA's bold missions, accomplishing something no one has ever done before to answer long-standing questions about our universe,” program scientist Arik Posner said in a statement. Parker Solar Probe.
“We look forward to receiving the first ship update and starting to receive science data in the coming weeks,” he added.
The mission team will lose direct contact with the probe during this approach – called perihelion – but it must receive a signal from the spacecraft on Friday.
During its approach, Parker will travel at a blistering speed of around 690,000 km/h — which would make it possible to reach Washington from Tokyo in less than a minute.
The probe's heat shield will endure extreme temperatures of about 870 to 930 degrees Celsius, but its internal instruments will remain close to room temperature — about 29 degrees Celsius — as it explores the outermost layer of the probe. atmosphere of the Sun, called the corona.
One of Parker's objectives, in venturing into these extreme conditions, is to understand why this area is curiously 200 times hotter than the surface of the star. Initial results from its data revealed in 2019 how chaotic the Sun's atmosphere is.
This Christmas Eve approach will be the first of three record passes, with the next two — March 22 and June 19, 2025 — expected to bring Parker back to a similar distance from the Sun.
