A NASA probe will make history this Christmas Eve as it becomes the closest man-made object to the sun.
Tomorrow at 11:53 GMT, the Parker Solar Probe will pass within just 6.1 million km of the Sun’s surface.
That is more than eight times smaller than the distance between our home star and the nearest planet, Mercury.
As the probe reaches its closest point, it will also become the fastest man-made object ever, traveling at a whopping 692,000 km per hour.
In a moment compared to the 1969 moon landing, Parker will ‘touch’ the surface of the sun to collect crucial data.
During that short flight, the probe will pass through the Sun’s super-hot outer atmosphere, called the corona – the origin of solar storms that have the potential to wreak havoc on Earth.
Although the Parker probe can tolerate temperatures of more than 1,400 °C (2,550 °F), its virtually indestructible heat shield should ensure it can survive the extreme conditions.
Nick Pinkine, Parker Solar Probe Mission Operations Manager at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), says, “No man-made object has ever passed this close to a star, so Parker will truly return data from uncharted territory.”
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe (pictured) will make history on Christmas Eve as it becomes the closest man-made object to the sun
The Parker Solar Probe launched from Cape Canaveral in August 2018 before beginning its 90-million-mile (149-million-kilometer) journey to the sun.
The goal was to collect more data about the Sun’s corona by flying as close as possible through the stellar atmosphere.
Because gravity is so strong at this distance, the probe must move incredibly fast to avoid crashing into the heart of the sun.
To do this, the probe was repeatedly catapulted around the Sun and Venus, gaining speed with each pass.
In 2021, Parker successfully crossed the solar corona for the first time, diving into an area where temperatures could exceed one million degrees Celsius for up to five hours.
Since then, Parker has completed 21 solar-powered catapults, but tomorrow the probe will break its own record for both speed and distance.
After completing its seventh loop around Venus in November, Parker is now using that “gravity assist” to fly seven times closer to the star than any other spacecraft.
At a distance of just 6.1 million km, Parker will collect particles of the corona in a special instrument called the Solar Probe Cup.
The Parker probe will pass within 6.1 million km of the sun’s surface, traveling at a speed of 30,000 mph (692,000 km per hour).
At the same time, Parker will surpass his previous speed record of 395,000 mph (635,000 km per hour), according to NASA.
At top speed, the probe will move 300 times faster than a Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter jet or 200 times faster than a rifle bullet.
Arik Posner, Parker Solar Probe program scientist for NASA, said, “This is an example of NASA’s bold missions doing something no one else has ever done before to answer long-standing questions about our universe.”
To prevent it from melting during that time, the Parker Solar Probe is designed to withstand incredibly high temperatures.
The body of the probe itself is protected by a 2.4 meter wide heat shield made of a type of carbon foam.
Although this shield is only 11 cm thick, the material composition makes it virtually indestructible.
Johns Hopkins APL explained in a mission briefing: ‘A meter behind that, where the spacecraft body is, it’s almost room temperature.
“And all of his systems will have to work perfectly before Parker can collect data from this dynamic environment near a star where no spacecraft has ever dared to travel.”
As it passes, the probe collects particles from the sun in the ‘Solar Probe Cup’ (pictured), which is made of titanium-zirconium-molybdenum, a metal alloy with a melting point of 2,349 °C (4,260 °F).
Meanwhile, the Solar Probe Cup is made of titanium-zirconium-molybdenum, a metal alloy with a melting point of 2,349°C (4,260°F).
However, the probe’s mission is about more than moving quickly and withstanding high temperatures.
The data it provides could make a huge difference in humanity’s defense against devastating solar flares.
Thanks to the intense temperatures and powerful magnetic fields, scientists have been unable to peer into the Sun’s corona.
However, this region is the origin of the plasma and magnetic fields that cause solar flares and coronal mass ejections.
With the sun reaching its solar maximum this year, scientists have warned that Earth is long overdue for a superflare impact that could cause widespread power outages and damage to satellite networks.
By collecting data from this region, NASA says the Parker Solar Probe will help scientists make better predictions about space weather.
That could buy Earth valuable time to protect our most vulnerable systems in the event of a dangerous solar flare.
This data will help scientists understand what’s happening in the sun’s super-hot atmosphere. This could help us predict dangerous solar flares that have the potential to cause massive disruptions on Earth (stock image)
Mr. Posner says, “We can’t wait to get that first status update from the spacecraft and get the science data in the coming weeks.”
Parker will send out a beacon on Friday, December 27 to confirm it survived the flyby. More details will follow soon.
The probe is expected to fly close four more times in 2025, but none will come as close as tomorrow.
And while the craft will eventually be torn apart by the sun’s gravity, the heat shield can continue to orbit in its orbit for thousands of years.