NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has transmitted a beacon tone back to Earth indicating it’s in good health and operating normally after successfully making its closest approach to the Sun yet. This flyby happened on December 24th, when spacecraft zipped just 3.8 million miles from the solar surface while moving approximately 430,000 miles per hour.
Telemetry data is expected to be transmitted on January 1st, at which time will allow researchers to take measurements that help them better understand how material in this region gets heated to millions of degrees, trace the origin of the solar wind, and discover how energetic particles are accelerated to near light speed.
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No human-made object has ever passed this close to a star, so Parker will truly be returning data from uncharted territory. We’re excited to hear back from the spacecraft when it swings back around the Sun,” said Nick Pinkine, Parker Solar Probe mission operations manager at APL.
