NASA spacecraft tries to get as close to the Sun as possible

The Parker Solar Probe spacecraft flies into the Sun's outer atmosphere, known as the corona, on a mission to help scientists learn more about the Sun. Source: Reuters.

On 24/12 (Eastern Time), NASA's Parker Solar Probe is scheduled to make history by flying into the Sun's outer atmosphere known as the corona on a mission to help scientists learn more about Earth's nearest star.

“No human-made object has ever flown so close to a star, so Parker will truly be sending data from uncharted territory,” Nick Pinkine, director of operations at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, said in a NASA blog.

NASA's Parker spacecraft is on its way to a million kilometers from the Sun's surface 6,1 at 6:53 a.m. 24/12 Eastern Time (18:53 p.m. Vietnam time). Because the spacecraft lost contact, it was not until 27/12 (Vietnam time) that mission controllers were able to confirm the spacecraft's status.

Illustration photo. Source: Reuters.

The Parker spacecraft will travel at speeds of up to 692.000 miles per hour and will withstand temperatures of up to 982 degrees Fahrenheit (XNUMX degrees Celsius), NASA said on its website.

When the probe first entered the Sun's atmosphere in 2021, it found new details about the boundaries of the Sun's atmosphere and collected close-up images of coronal jets, the spire-like structures seen during solar eclipses.

Since the spacecraft launched in 2018, the probe has been gradually circling closer to the Sun, using Venus flybys to tug it into a tighter orbit with the Sun.

An instrument on board the spacecraft has captured visible light (the part of the electromagnetic spectrum that can be seen with the naked eye) from Venus, giving scientists a new way to see through the planet's thick clouds to the surface below, NASA said.