NASA's Parker probe came close to the Sun, a close record for a machine controlled from Earth

SPACE – A new feat for science. NASA's Parker probe came close to the Sun passing this Tuesday, December 24, Christmas Eve, closer to the star than it had 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. The probe was to pass next to the sun on Tuesday at 11:53 a.m. GMT (12:53 p.m. in Paris), still 6.1 million kilometers from the surface of the star, a record for proximity.

However, the mission team must wait until Friday to receive a signal from the spacecraft, scientists having lost direct contact with the probe for several days due to its approach to the sun, called perihelion. “It’s the moment when we say to ourselves “we did it””said Nicky Fox, a NASA official, in a video on social networks on Tuesday.

The heat shield has endured temperatures up to 930°C

“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.”Arik Posner, Parker Solar Probe program scientist, said in a statement on Monday.

“We look forward to receiving the first ship update and starting to receive science data in the coming weeks”he added. During its approach, Parker traveled at a blistering speed of around 690,000 km/h – which would take Washington to Tokyo in less than a minute.

The probe's heat shield endured extreme temperatures of around 870 to 930 degrees Celsius, but its internal instruments remained close to room temperature – around 29°C – as it explored 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. This approach on Christmas Eve is 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.

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