Fri Dec 27 11:04:57 UTC 2024: ## Parker Solar Probe Makes History: Closest-Ever Approach to the Sun
**Washington D.C., December 27, 2024** – NASA announced today that its Parker Solar Probe has successfully completed the closest-ever approach to the sun by a human-made object. The spacecraft, traveling at speeds up to 430,000 mph, passed within 3.8 million miles of the solar surface on December 24th, entering the sun’s outer atmosphere, the corona.
Confirmation of the probe’s successful flyby arrived just before midnight on Thursday, in the form of a beacon signal received by the operations team at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. Detailed telemetry data is expected on January 1st.
Withstanding temperatures exceeding 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit, the probe gathered invaluable data crucial to understanding several key solar phenomena. This includes how coronal material is heated to millions of degrees, the origin of the solar wind, and the acceleration of energetic particles to near light speed.
Launched in 2018, the Parker Solar Probe has progressively approached the sun, utilizing Venus’s gravity to adjust its orbit. This groundbreaking mission promises unprecedented insights into our nearest star and its impact on Earth.
First Piper 