This Christmas Eve, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe will achieve yet another record when it flies closest to the Sun than ever before. The daring fly will be the 22nd perihelion of the spacecraft, and it is expected to bring it within 4.5 million miles of the surface of the solar body.
The Parker Solar Probe was specifically built in 2018 to study the outer corona of the sun to unlock the secrets behind solar wind, solar flares, and other kinds of space-weather events. This flyby will enable the researchers to accumulate never-before-seen data about the magnetic fields, plasma waves, and energetic particles of the Sun.
A solid thermal protection system is what is credited with safeguarding of the spacecraft from temperatures over 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit in this record-breaking journey. At closest approach, it will be spewing out a velocity of up to 430,000 miles per hour, making it the fastest human-made object ever at the closest point Parker Solar Probe.
The fact that this perihelion happens on Christmas Eve is raising brow amongst space enthusiasts and scientists. While the Parker Solar Probe has flown very close to the Sun many times before, such a flyby should be quite significant because it will get more into the Sun’s corona than any spacecraft ever has.
The mission already includes such stunning findings, such as watching the magnetic field of the sun flip direction unexpectedly-a weirdness that may prove what gives solar wind its electric, personality. By flying even closer, the probe expects to shed light on this and a multitude of other solar enigmas.
Most importantly, these findings will help to understand much broader implications because the behavior of the Sun is crucial for space weather predictions that affect satellite communications, GPS systems, and even power grids.
