Will Get Closer To Sun Than Any Craft Has Been

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe was scheduled to perform its final Venus gravity assist maneuver and pass within 233 miles (376 km) of the planet’s surface.

The slingshot adjusts the probe’s orbit such that it will swoop to within 3.86 million miles of the Sun’s surface on December 24, 2024. It will be the closest any human-made object has ever been to the Sun. Amazingly, the objective of this mission was first conceived 65 years ago, and Parker’s data will most definitely be charting as-yet uncharted territory.

This will be the closest a human-made probe has ever passed to a star, and in this regime, Parker will be cutting through plasma plumes still connected to the Sun and may actually pass through a solar eruption. To protect its instruments, the probe has a 4.5-inch-thick carbon-composite shield capable of withstanding a temperature of 2,500^o F or 1,377^o C.

On December 14, 2021, Parker flew through the Sun’s corona, its upper atmosphere, and sampled particles and magnetic fields in that environment.

Its scientific instruments consist of a Fields Experiment, an Integrated Science Investigation, a Wide Field Imager (WISPR), and Solar Wind Electrons, Alphas, and Protons, used to study magnetic fields, plasma, energetic particles, and image the solar wind.

FMI:  science.nasa.gov/