NASA Probe To Make Record Close Approach To Sun

NBC News reports:

NASA is preparing to “taste” the sun on Christmas Eve. The agency’s Parker Solar Probe is days away from making its closest-ever approach to the sun on Tuesday, swooping nearer to our star than any other human-made object in history.

The spacecraft, which is about the size of a small car, is set to dive within 3.86 million miles of the solar surface at 6:40 a.m. ET on Tuesday. It will fly by at about 430,000 mph, according to NASA.

“If you can imagine, it’s like going 96% of the way there to the sun’s surface,” said Kelly Korreck, a program scientist in NASA’s heliophysics division. As the Parker Solar Probe swoops close to the sun, it will likely fly through plumes of solar plasma and could even dive into active regions of the star, Korreck said.

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Studying our star, from near and far. Even as @NASASun‘s Parker Solar Probe prepares to fly closer to the Sun than any craft in history on Dec. 24, the New Horizons spacecraft is studying the Sun’s heliosphere from way out beyond Pluto. https://t.co/xfUG08evdH pic.twitter.com/NURMzxLjvT

— NASA Solar System (@NASASolarSystem) December 19, 2024

NASA’s #ParkerSolarProbe has sent its final signal before heading to its closest encounter with the Sun on Dec 24 at 6:53 AM ET. Mission team members at APL share their best wishes to Parker as it makes history. https://t.co/5bK61GaDdS@NASASun @NASASolarSystem pic.twitter.com/G9xwxF6eM6

— Johns Hopkins APL (@JHUAPL) December 20, 2024