A NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) spacecraft named Parker Solar Probe attempts to create history with the closest-ever approach to the Sun. Today, during a record-breaking flyby, this spacecraft will pass within approximately 6.1 million kilometres (3.8 million miles) of the Sun’s surface.
The uncrewed spacecraft will fly at 4,30,000 miles per hour (6,92,000 kilometres per hour) during this flyby. In a live science presentation on YouTube on December 16, NASA announced that this would be the fastest human-made object in history.
NASA’s historic mission was launched on August 12, 2018. The long-awaited day is here. Scientists will be waiting for a signal from the spacecraft on December 27 if it survives. This unprecedented approach is scheduled for 5:23 PM.
Mission operating officials at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) confirmed the last contact with the spacecraft on December 21.
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Dr Nicola Fox, head of science at NASA, told BBC News, “For centuries, people have studied the Sun, but you don’t experience the atmosphere of a place until you actually go visit it. And so, we can’t really experience the atmosphere of our star unless we fly through it.”
Dr. Eugene Parker, an astrophysicist and founder of the solar research field of heliophysics, initiated this mission in 2018. He attended the event, but unfortunately, Dr. Eugene Parker died in 2022 at the age of 94.
