Tue Dec 24 19:07:32 UTC 2024: ## Parker Solar Probe Makes History with Closest-Ever Flyby of the Sun
**Greenbelt, MD** – NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has successfully completed a historic flyby of the sun, venturing closer to our star than any human-made object before. The probe reached its closest approach, known as perihelion, at 11:53 GMT on Tuesday, passing within 6.1 million kilometers (3.8 million miles) of the sun’s surface. This puts it within the sun’s outer atmosphere, the corona.
Traveling at an incredible speed of up to 692,000 km/h (430,000 mph), the probe endured temperatures reaching 982 degrees Celsius (1,800 degrees Fahrenheit). Due to communication blackout during the closest approach, confirmation of the probe’s health and data collection will not be available until Friday.
This close approach marks the first of three record-breaking flybys planned for this year, with subsequent close passes scheduled for March 22 and June 19. The mission aims to unravel some of the sun’s greatest mysteries, including the origin of solar wind, the high temperature of the corona compared to the sun’s surface, and the formation of coronal mass ejections.
Previous flybys in 2021 already yielded significant discoveries, revealing new details about the boundaries of the sun’s atmosphere and providing close-up images of coronal streamers. This mission also yielded unexpected benefits; one instrument captured visible light images of Venus, offering scientists a new way to study the planet’s surface through its dense cloud cover.
“No human-made object has ever passed this close to a star,” said Nick Pinkine, mission operations manager at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. “Parker will truly be returning data from uncharted territory.” The data collected from these unprecedented close encounters promises to revolutionize our understanding of the sun and its effects on our solar system.
First Piper 