NASA’s Parker probe, tasked with unlocking the secrets of the Sun for five years, managed to become the fastest object created by humans: it broke the speed record by traveling at 635,266 kilometers (394,736 miles) per hour.
This speed was recorded on September 27, when it also set another record by completing its seventeenth approach to the Sun. It was the closest distance from our star than any spacecraft has ever been, passing just 7.26 million kilometers from the Sun. solar surface.
Given that the Sun is just under 1.4 million kilometers in diameter, this would be like being several respectable steps away from a lit campfire.
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe observed a slow solar wind flowing from a small coronal hole: the long, thin black dot, seen on the left side of the sun in this image captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (NASA via REUTERS.)
Close enough to smell the smoke, but not so close that it burns your nose hairs. Launched in August 1018, Parker aims to study and monitor the outer solar corona and the behavior of the Sun. Its previous closest approach to the Sun was on June 22 of this year, 8.5 million kilometers away.
Prompted by a gravity-assisted flyby of Venus on August 21 of this year, the close approach (known as perihelion) occurred with Parker Solar Probe moving at 635,266 kilometers per hour.
At these speeds, it would be possible for a plane to circumnavigate our planet approximately 15 times in a single hour, or go from New York to Los Angeles in just over 20 seconds.
Boosted by a recent spin past Venus, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe heads toward its next closest approach to the Sun on November 21 (NASA)
The milestone also marked the midpoint of the mission’s 17th solar encounter, which began on September 22 and ended on October 3, NASA reports. The spacecraft came into good condition and all systems were functioning normally.
After that record, Parker communicated again with mission operators at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, where the spacecraft was also designed and built, by sending a stream of telemetry (data on its status) on October 1 . The spacecraft transmitted its scientific data from the encounter (which largely covers the properties, structure and behavior of the solar wind).
Surviving a solar flare
The Parker Solar Probe mission excites scientists with the new data it provides about our star (NASA)
A new study published September 5 in The Astrophysical Journal details that last year the Parker Solar Probe passed through a coronal mass ejection (CME). These eruptions expel magnetic fields and billions of tons of plasma at speeds between 100 to 3000 kilometers per second.
When headed toward Earth, these ejecta can generate auroras and, if strong enough, devastate satellite electronics and power grids on Earth.
Cruising around the far side of the Sun 9.2 million kilometers from the solar surface (36.8 million kilometers closer than Mercury to the Sun) , the Parker Solar Probe first detected the EMC remotely before passing around it.
When Parker Solar Probe passed through the corona on encounter nine, the spacecraft passed by structures called coronal streamers. (NASA/JOHNS HOPKINS APL/NAVAL RESEARCH LABORATORY)
Subsequently, it entered the structure, crossed the wake of its shock wave, and finally emerged on the other side. In total, she spent nearly two days observing the EMC, providing physicists with unparalleled insight into these stellar events and an opportunity to study them in the early stages of their evolution.
“This is the closest EMC to the Sun that we have ever observed. We have never seen an event of this magnitude at this distance,” said Nour Raouafi, Parker Solar Probe project scientist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, tasked with building the spacecraft.
The EMC of September 5, 2022 was extreme. As the Parker probe passed behind the shock wave, its array of detectors for electrons, alpha particles and protons from the solar wind recorded particles accelerating up to 1,350 kilometers per second.
Illustration of NASA’s Solar Parker mission in an encounter with Venus to gain speed (NASA)
If it had headed toward Earth, it is suspected that it would have been close in magnitude to the Carrington Event, a solar storm of 1859 that is considered the most powerful on record to hit Earth.
Physicists have surmised that such an event today, if detected too late, could disable communications systems and trigger blackouts around the world.
Despite the power of the eruption, Parker was unfazed. Its heat shield, radiators, and thermal protection system ensured that probe temperatures never changed.
