NASA‘s Parker Solar Probe continues to fly around the Sun, making history, and this week it is preparing for another record-breaking approach. According to the space agency, on December 24 at 6:53 a.m. EST, the spacecraft’s orbit will pass within just 3.8 million miles of the Sun’s surface. This will be the closest it – or any other probe – has ever come to the Sun. This event will mark the completion of the Parker Solar Probe’s 22nd orbit around our star and will be the first of the last three flybys planned for its mission. The spacecraft, which was launched in 2018, is expected to complete a total of 24 orbits.
“No human-made object has ever come this close to a star, so Parker will truly bring back data from uncharted territory,” said Nick Pinkin, Parker Solar Probe mission manager at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, in a statement on NASA’s blog. “We look forward to receiving feedback from the spacecraft as it returns to orbit around the Sun.”
The Parker Solar Probe will be traveling at about 430,000 miles per hour during its closest flyby. It will contact the team to confirm its status on December 27, when it is far enough away from the Sun to re-establish communication.
