On Christmas Eve, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe will break its own record as it swoops within 3.8 million miles (6.1 million kilometers) of the sun’s surface at an astonishing speed of 430,000 miles (690,000 kilometers per hour). Speed records and closest approaches to stars.
The spacecraft is about the size of a small car Completed the final swing past Venus Last month, set it on a closer path sun More than any man-made object before.
December 24, Parker Solar Probe It is expected to cut off the plasma plume still rooted in the sun, even Flying over a solar eruption areasimilar to a surfer diving under rough waves. October, sunny Reached the most turbulent stage During its 11-year cycle, this means the spacecraft will soon begin studying powerful solar flares occurring above each other, providing scientists with up-close data on the chaotic workings of our star.
“We are preparing to make history,” Nour Rawafi, the mission’s project scientist, told reporters at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) on Tuesday (December 10). “Parker Solar Probe is allowing us to see a new reality about our star,” he said, adding that the data sent back by the probe “will take decades to sort through.”
Related: Parker Solar Probe: The first spacecraft to “contact” the sun
The probe’s Christmas Eve feat is expected to take place at 6:40 a.m. ET (1140 GMT), but mission control will lose contact with the spacecraft at that time. Shortly before and after closest approach on December 21 and December 27, scientists will look for beacon tones from the probe to confirm its health. If all goes according to plan, the first images from the encounter could emerge at the start of the new year, with scientific data to be released a few weeks later, Rawaffi said.
due to its Launched in 2018the probe helps Solve a long-standing mystery Chief among them is how its fragile outer atmosphere, the corona, is obtained about our star. Hundreds of times hotter The farther it is from the sun’s surface. In 2022, the survey will have the opportunity to be aligned with those in Europe solar orbiter The spacecraft provides scientists with a rare opportunity to study the same patch of solar wind, Revealing how energetic plasma waves speed up the solar wind Reach unexpectedly high speeds.
Among its other discoveries, Parker Solar Probe also provided the first compelling evidence for the existence of a long-theorized but elusive dust-free zone around the sun, formed by sunlight heating cosmic dust to high temperatures and It is formed by converting it into gas.
A key reason the spacecraft has remained in such good shape over its six-year span is the mission team’s engineering excellence, including a custom heat shield and autonomous systems that allowed coronal material to enter even while pointing the probe toward our star. This system also protects the detector from the sun.
Near its closest approach to the sun, temperatures at the front of the heat shield are expected to reach 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit (982 degrees Celsius). It’s hot, but the mission team Confidence in the spacecraft and its instruments Withstands temperatures up to 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit (1,371 degrees Celsius).
“It’s great to see all of the science that was achieved because of our over-preparation,” said Elizabeth Congdon, lead engineer for the detector’s thermal protection system. She added that the specially designed white coating will reflect most of the light back into space so that the spacecraft itself experiences a relatively comfortable room temperature.