NASA’s Parker Solar Probe will soon pass within 15 million miles of the solar surface, making it the only spacecraft to ever get so close to the sun, ever. The probe is set to make 24 close approaches to the sun over the next seven years, with the closest pass being 3.8 million miles. “It’s been just 78 days since Parker Solar Probe launched, and we’ve now come closer to our star than any other spacecraft in history,’ said Project Manager Andy Driesman, from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. Continue reading for two more videos and information.
“NASA last week revealed a stunning image of Earth taken by its $1.5 billion (£1.1 billion) Parker Solar Probe on its historic journey toward the sun. The picture, snapped around 27 million miles (43 million km) from our planet, shows Earth as a bright round spot surrounded by thousands of stars dotted throughout our corner of the galaxy. The Parker Solar Probe (PSP) is on a mission to ‘touch the sun’, and will be the first spacecraft to fly through the outermost part of the star’s atmosphere, known as its corona,” according to The Daily Mail.
