NASA sun probe becomes the fastest man-made object in history after traveling nearly 400,000mph over the solar surface

a NASA The probe became the fastest man-made object in history.

The Parker Solar Probe, which is exploring our sun, achieved a record speed of 394,736 miles per hour last month, twice the speed of a lightning bolt or 200 times the speed of a gun bullet.

The feat was achieved during the Sun’s 17th oscillation on September 27, breaking the distance record by skimming just 4.51 million of the Sun’s surface.

The Parker Solar Probe will spend the next week finishing data transfers back to Earth from this latest encounter, which focused on recording the properties, structure and behavior of the solar wind.

The Parker Solar Probe, which is exploring our sun, achieved a record speed of 394,736 miles per hour last month, twice the speed of a lightning bolt or 200 times the speed of a gun bullet.

“The spacecraft entered the encounter in good health,” Michael Buckley of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory said in a report. Post on NASA’s blog“With all systems operating normally.”

Since Parker’s launch in 2018, a team of nearly a dozen physicists, engineers and support staff at Johns Hopkins University has managed NASA’s mission, including the initial design and construction of the $1.5 billion spacecraft.

The record-setting spacecraft was lightning-fast “sending a stream of telemetry (status data)” back to… Mission operators at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, maryland, Since October 1.

The final speed achieved by the probe came thanks to A Gravity assisted flight Venuswhich is approximately 67,237,910 miles from the sun.

Parker completed Venus Flyby 6 on August 21, meaning it traveled more than 67 million miles in just over a month.

In April 2021, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe traveled through the corona on its eighth attempt, and the spacecraft flew past structures called coronal streamers (pictured). Such a view is only possible because of the spacecraft’s ability to go above and below the signs inside the corona

In April 2021, the Parker Solar Probe encountered temperatures of up to 2,370 degrees Fahrenheit and radiation 500 times stronger than Earth’s on its first confirmed pass through the Sun’s upper atmosphere.

Since the Sun lacks a solid surface, the corona is where the action is; Exploring this region of magnetic density up close could help scientists better understand solar flares that could interfere with life here on Earth.

“The Parker Solar Probe, touching the sun, is a monumental moment for solar science and a truly remarkable achievement,” Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, said that year in celebration of the probe’s eighth solar flyby.

“Not only does this important breakthrough provide us with deeper insights into the evolution of our Sun and its effects on our solar system, but everything we learn about our star also teaches us more about stars in the rest of the universe.”

Having completed its 17th “solar encounter,” Parker has seven more sun-probing orbits planned by her mission scientists back home through the end of 2024.

Its last work after this pass will be a curve beyond the heliosphere, recording solar wind data until the probe evaporates in the heat.

In its final moments, the Parker Solar Probe will become part of the solar wind itself – a “A kind of poetic ending,” said one of the mission’s researchers, space plasma physicist David Malaspina Popular Science.

What is NASA’s Parker Solar Probe?

The Parker Solar Probe has come seven times closer to the Sun than any spacecraft before it

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe (PSP) will travel to the Sun seven times closer than any spacecraft before it by the end of its mission.

It was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket on August 12, 2018.

The probe flew into the outer atmosphere of the sun to study the life of stars and their atmospheric events.

It is hoped that Parker can help scientists better understand solar flares, which are short bursts of intense, high-energy radiation from the Sun’s surface that can disrupt communications on Earth.

Over the next few years, the probe will continue to make new discoveries as it approaches the sun, eventually making its closest approach in 2024, flying 3.9 million miles above the sun’s surface.

The spacecraft experiences extremes of heat and radiation and will reach speeds of up to 430,000 mph (700,000 km/h) on its closest approach to the star.

The handy kit includes a white-light imager called Whisper, which will capture images of solar waves as the rover moves through them at high speeds.

To measure the “bulk plasma” of the solar wind – which NASA described as the “bread and butter” of flares – an array of magnetic imaging equipment will also be stored on board.