NASA Spacecraft 'Safe'After Closest-Ever Approach to Sun

[Graybeard]

https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/nasa-spaceraft-sun/2024/12/27/id/1193009/

Friday, 27 December 2024 07:40 AM EST

NASA said on Friday that its Parker Solar Probe was "safe" and operating normally after successfully completing the closest-ever approach to the Sun by any human-made object.

The spacecraft passed just 3.8 million miles (6.1 million km) from the solar surface on Dec. 24, flying into the sun's outer atmosphere called the corona, on a mission to help scientists learn more about Earth's closest star.

The agency said the operations team at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland received the signal, a beacon tone, from the probe just before midnight on Thursday.

The spacecraft is expected to send detailed telemetry data about its status on Jan. 1, NASA added.

Moving at up to 430,000 mph (692,000 kph), the spacecraft endured temperatures of up to 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit (982 degrees Celsius), according to the NASA website.

"This close-up study of the Sun allows Parker Solar Probe to take measurements that help scientists better understand how material in this region gets heated to millions of degrees, trace the origin of the solar wind (a continuous flow of material escaping the Sun), and discover how energetic particles are accelerated to near light speed," the agency added.

The Parker Solar Probe was launched in 2018 and has been gradually circling closer towards the sun, using flybys of Venus to gravitationally pull it into a tighter orbit with the sun.

[ironglow]

  The high heat generated, seems to indicate there is some atmosphere in ouyter space that cxan cause enough friction to generate such heat.

 Is there such an atmosphere in outer space, or do you suppose the heat was entirely from the sun?

[Dixie-Dude]

Space in the shadow of the earth or moon is very cold.  The sun is our solar system's main source of heat.  The only exception is volcanic activity on the planets.  Otherwise space alone is very cold.  The Apollo spacecraft and the shuttle had to do a slow roll to even out the heat and cold while in space.  Newer spacecraft are designed to deal with heat and cold, mostly today with solar panels.   

[Graybeard]

The craft went into the outer layer of the sun, the corona. The same area of it that periodically has those coronal mass ejections aka solar flares.

[ironglow]

The craft went into the outer layer of the sun, the corona. The same area of it that periodically has those coronal mass ejections aka solar flares.

  OK..Knowing that this question is well within your experience, that clarifies it..thanks Bill !

[darkgael]

Maybe it was the speed of the probe that kept the temperature down.
The solar corona is VERY hot….on the order of 1.8 to 3.6 million degrees F. The probe was, however, moving at 430,000 kph (267189mph). Perhaps that speed limited the amount of time that the craft was exposed?

[ironglow]

Maybe it was the speed of the probe that kept the temperature down.
The solar corona is VERY hot….on the order of 1.8 to 3.6 million degrees F. The probe was, however, moving at 430,000 kph (267189mph). Perhaps that speed limited the amount of time that the craft was exposed?

  Certainly could be, so far as I know..