the Parker probe “grazes” the Sun… and it still works

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The Parker Solar Probe, the first machine to come as close as possible to the Sun, is “safe” and operating normally, NASA announced this Friday, December 27, 2024.

This probe passed on December 24 at only 6.1 million kilometers from the surface of the Sun. A close record. As a reminder, it penetrated its outer atmosphere, called the corona, as part of a mission to deepen scientists’ knowledge of the star closest to Earth.

This Tuesday, December 24, actu.fr explained to you that the NASA mission team had lost direct contact with the probe for several days. This Friday, December 27, they finally heard from him.

A scientific mission

According to NASA, the team from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland received the signal, a beacon tonefrom the probe shortly before midnight Thursday.

The probe should send detailed telemetric data on its condition on January 1added NASA.

Traveling at a speed of 692,000 km/h, the probe experienced temperatures reaching 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit (982 degrees Celsius), according to the NASA website.

“This close study of the Sun allows Parker Solar Probe to take measurements that help scientists better understand how matter in this region is heated to millions of degreesto trace the origin of the solar wind (a continuous flow of matter escaping from the Sun) and to discover how energetic particles are accelerated to a speed close to that of light,” writes the American space agency.

The Parker Solar Probe was launched in 2018 and gradually moved closer to the Sun, flying over Venus to gravitationally attract it into an orbit closer to the bright star.

With AFP.

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