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The Parker Solar Probe made history on Tuesday with a record-breaking flyby of the sun, coming closer to a star than any spacecraft ever has. At its closest point, the probe zoomed within 3.8 million miles (6.1 million kilometers) of the solar surface. This milestone marks humanity’s closest approach to a star to date. The mission operations team at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland confirmed the success of the flyby on Friday morning after receiving a signal from the spacecraft just before midnight on Thursday. The probe’s speed reached an incredible 430,000 miles per hour (692,000 kilometers per hour), making it the fastest human-made object in history. To put that speed into perspective, it could travel from Washington, D.C., to Tokyo in under a minute.
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The Parker Solar Probe has been on a historic journey since its launch on August 12, 2018, a mission that was decades in the making. The probe is named after Dr. Eugene Parker, a pioneering astrophysicist who laid the foundation for the field of heliophysics, the study of the sun and its influence on the solar system. Dr. Parker, who passed away in March 2022 at the age of 94, was the first living person to have a spacecraft named in his honor. He witnessed the early successes of the mission, including a groundbreaking achievement in December 2021 when the probe became the first spacecraft to “touch the sun” by flying through the sun’s corona, its outer atmosphere. Over the past six years, the probe has gathered critical data to help scientists unravel some of the sun’s greatest mysteries, such as how the solar wind is generated and why the corona is far hotter than the sun’s surface.
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The sun’s activity has profound implications for Earth, and the Parker Solar Probe’s mission is helping scientists better understand these phenomena. One key focus is coronal mass ejections—large clouds of ionized gas and magnetic fields that erupt from the sun’s outer atmosphere. When these ejections are directed toward Earth, they can cause geomagnetic storms, disrupting satellites, power grids, and communication systems. By studying these events, the probe is providing insights that could improve our ability to predict and prepare for such solar storms. The probe’s data is also shedding light on the structure of coronal mass ejections, which is essential for understanding how they interact with Earth’s magnetic field.
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The Parker Solar Probe’s recent flyby on Christmas Eve was the first of its final three closest approaches, with the next two scheduled for March 22 and June 19. During this historic pass, the spacecraft came so close to the sun that, if the distance between Earth and the sun were the length of an American football field, the probe would have been just 4 yards from the end zone. At this proximity, the probe flew through plumes of plasma and even within the vicinity of a solar eruption, if one occurred. The spacecraft is built to withstand the extreme conditions of the sun, equipped with a carbon foam shield that can endure temperatures near 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit (1,400 degrees Celsius). Inside the probe, however, the temperature remains comfortable for its electronics, thanks to a unique cooling system that pumps water through the solar arrays to maintain a steady temperature of 320 degrees Fahrenheit (160 degrees Celsius).
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The Parker Solar Probe’s mission coincides with a significant event in the sun’s 11-year solar cycle. Just over a year after the probe’s launch, the sun entered a new solar cycle, and in October 2023, scientists announced that the sun had reached solar maximum, the peak of its activity. At this point, the sun’s magnetic poles flip, causing a transition from calm to active periods. This increased activity has already made itself known through two major geomagnetic storms in May and October, which caused auroras to appear as far south as the lower United States. The May storm was particularly extraordinary, with some scientists estimating it could be a once-in-100- to 500-year event. These auroras, which dance across the skies at Earth’s poles, are a breathtaking reminder of the sun’s power and its influence on our planet.
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The data gathered by the Parker Solar Probe during its final flybys could revolutionize our understanding of the sun and its behavior. By flying through uncharted solar territory, the probe is collecting unprecedented insights into the sun’s activity, including its magnetic field dynamics and the mechanisms driving solar winds and coronal mass ejections. This information will not only help scientists predict solar storms more accurately but also deepen our understanding of the sun’s role in the solar system. As Dr. C. Alex Young, a NASA scientist, noted, the sun serves as a unique laboratory for studying stars and their interactions with planets. The Parker Solar Probe’s mission is a testament to human curiosity and ingenuity, offering a glimpse into the sun’s secrets and the vast mysteries of the cosmos. As the probe completes its final flybys, scientists are hopeful that the sun will put on a spectacular show, providing the data needed to unlock new discoveries and inspire future generations of space exploration.
