Here Comes the Sun

The Parker Solar Probe, humanity's first-ever mission into the Sun's outer atmosphere, or corona, has become the closest human-made object to ever approach our star.

The space agency said in a statement on Monday that Parker passed the current record of 26.55 million miles (42.73 million km) from the Sun's surface. Yet, the spacecraft is gradually shrinking its orbit around the sun, with the final objective being 3.83 million miles (6.16 million km) from the surface. The previous record was set by the German-American Helios 2 probe in April 1976.

"It's been just 78 days since Parker Solar Probe launched, and we've now come closer to our star than any other spacecraft in history," said Project Manager Andy Driesman.

It also emerged on Monday that the mission set the speed record for spacecraft traveling relative to the Sun, surpassing 153,454 mph (shy of 247,000 km/h) and breaking the record set by Helios 2 back in 1976.

The Parker Solar Probe blasted off from Cape Canaveral air force station in Florida on August 13.

During its 7-year mission, the probe will complete 24 orbits of the Sun, coming within 3.8 million miles of its surface, and dip into the corona, the plasmic aura that is even hotter than the surface.

The craft will seek to unlock some of mysteries about our Sun's behavior by sampling the corona, the birthplace of solar flares and other violent events, and get a better understanding of how solar winds are formed.

NASA expects to get the first batch of data in December, but the spacecraft has another mission: it holds a memory card with the names of over 1.1 million people who signed up to "travel" to the Sun. The probe is equipped with a carbon heat shield to prevent it from roasting. </s> The solar probe just broke two all-time records on its way to 'touch' the sun.

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe — the world’s first mission to “touch” the sun — has ventured closer to the sun than any other man-made object before it, NASA announced earlier this week.

The spacecraft officially broke the world record for the closest approach to the sun on October 29, at about 1:04 p.m. EDT. At the time, the Parker Solar Probe got closer than 26.55 million miles (42.7 million kilometers) from the sun’s surface.

As the Inquisitr previously reported, up until now the record belonged to the German-American Helios 2 mission — which managed to come as close as 26.98 million miles (43.4 million kilometers) to our star on April 17, 1976.

“It’s been just 78 days since Parker Solar Probe launched, and we’ve now come closer to our star than any other spacecraft in history,” said Andy Driesman, who manages the project at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. “It’s a proud moment for the team, though we remain focused on our first solar encounter.”

Throughout its seven-year mission, the Parker Solar Probe has surpassed its own incredible feat time and time again, as the spacecraft prepares to perform a total of 24 orbits of the sun. During the final orbit, scheduled for 2024, the Parker Solar Probe will travel through the sun’s fiery atmosphere — known as the solar corona — coming within 3.8 million miles (6.1 million kilometers) from the surface of the sun.

“We’re getting closer to ‘touching’ the Sun!” NASA tweeted on Monday.

But wait, there’s more. Nearly 10 hours after smashing this impressive record, NASA’s intrepid spacecraft obliterated yet another one — also previously held by the Helios 2 mission.

“At about 10:54 p.m. EDT, Parker Solar Probe surpassed 153,454 miles per hour — as calculated by the mission team — making it the fastest-ever human-made object relative to the sun,” NASA revealed in a subsequent blog post.

The formidable spacecraft set two new records on the same day and is on its way to even greater achievements. In 2024, the Parker Solar Probe is expected to reach a top speed of about 430,000 miles per hour — or 0.0006 percent the speed of light, notes Gizmodo.

Last month, the Parker Solar Probe set its sights back on Earth and snapped a lovely space portrait of our home planet, the Inquisitr recently reported.

Next up for the pioneering spacecraft is the first solar encounter — an exciting phase that begins today and will set the Parker Solar Probe on the path to its first perihelion next week. According to NASA, the probe is scheduled to reach this first closest point to the sun on November 5 about 10:28 p.m. EST. </s> NASA’s Parker Solar Probe reaches closest to the Sun than any spacecraft ever (video)

The $1.5 billion mission will take humanity closer to the Sun than ever before

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has clinched the record for closest approach to the Sun by a man-made object, the space agency confirmed Monday.

Scientists calculated that the spacecraft surpassed the current record of 26.55 million miles from the Sun’s surface at about 1:04 p.m. EDT Monday. The previous record was set in April 1976 by the Helios 2 spacecraft.

“It’s been just 78 days since Parker Solar Probe launched, and we’ve now come closer to our star than any other spacecraft in history,” said Parker Solar Probe Project Manager Andy Driesman, of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, in a statement.

Parker blasted off on its odyssey atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket in the early hours of Aug. 12, 2018.

The $1.5 billion mission will take humanity closer to the Sun than ever before. Parker will be the first spacecraft to fly through the Sun’s corona, the outermost part of the star’s atmosphere. It is expected to arrive at the Sun in November. </s> NASA’s solar probe has officially broken 1972 the record set by the Helios 2 spacecraft, to become the closest space probe to approach the Sun. The technology broke the previous record of 26.55 million miles from the Sun on Tuesday, October 29. US space agency NASA boasted in a statement the Parker Solar Probe will continue to break even more records as it makes numerous approaches to the star. NASA launched the exploration probe to the Sun less than 80 days ago, on August 12, on a first of its kind mission to study the Sun’s corona.

During its mission, the probe will dip in and out of orbit around the Sun reaching within 3.83 million miles of its scorching surface. Andy Driesman, Parker project manager, said: “It’s been just 78 days since Parker Solar Probe launched, and we’ve now come closer to our star than any other spacecraft in history. “It’s a proud moment for the team, though we remain focused on our first solar encounter, which begins on October 31.” Not content with just being the closest ever probe to the Sun, NASA expected the spacecraft to break a speed record on Tuesday night as well.

The space agency said the probe was well on its way to break the 153,454 mph milestone set by the Helios 2 in April 1976.

On October 31, the day of Halloween, NASA will begin its first so-called solar encounter with the burning star. After that, the space probe will gradually creep closer to the Sun’s surface until it reaches its closest possible distance on November 5. NASA said: “The spacecraft will face brutal heat and radiation conditions while providing humanity with unprecedentedly close-up observations of a star and helping us understand phenomena that have puzzled scientists for decades.

“These observations will add key knowledge to NASA’s efforts to understand the Sun, where changing conditions can propagate out into the solar system, affecting Earth and other worlds.” The NASA Parker Solar Probe blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, US, this summer. NASA and the Applied Physics Laboratory at John Hopkins University in Laurel, Maryland are operating the mission. The spacecraft was designed to study energised particle ejections and solar winds escaping the Sun’s outer corona. </s> Just over 11 weeks after its launch atop a Delta IV Heavy rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has already beaten the record for the closest spacecraft to the Sun — and it’s only going to get closer.

According to NASA, the Parker Solar Probe passed the record of 26.55 million miles (42.73 million kilometers), set by the Helios 2 spacecraft in April 1976, at about 1:04 p.m. EDT (17:04 GMT) on Oct. 29, 2018.

“It’s been just 78 days since Parker Solar Probe launched, and we’ve now come closer to our star than any other spacecraft in history,” Project Manager Andy Driesman, from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, said in a NASA news release. “It’s a proud moment for the team, though we remain focused on our first solar encounter, which begins on Oct. 31.”

As the Parker Solar Probe continues to fly in its solar orbit, it will periodically swing by Venus to use the planet’s gravity to gradually get closer to the Sun with a final close approach distance estimated to be about 3.83 million miles (6.24 million kilometers) by 2024, NASA said. For comparison, Mercury — the closest planet to the Sun — orbits at an average distance of about 35.98 million miles (57.90 million kilometers).

The spacecraft’s first Venus flyby occurred Oct. 3, 2018. It’s next won’t be until Dec. 26, 2019. In total, the Parker Solar Probe is expected fly by the planet seven times through 2024.

In addition to setting new proximity records, the Parker Solar Probe is breaking speed records too. At 10:54 p.m. EDT Oct. 29 (2:54 GMT Oct. 30), the spacecraft beat Helios 2’s April 1976 speed record of 153,454 mph (246,960 kph) relative to the Sun. By the time the mission is at its closest in 2024, it will be flying by the Sun at about 430,000 mph (690,000 kph).

The next major milestone for the probe will be its first perihelion, or closest point in its orbit around the Sun. That is expected to occur at about 10:28 p.m. EST Nov. 5 (3:28 GMT Nov. 6), 2018.

Launched Aug. 12, 2018, the Parker Solar Probe is designed to be the first spacecraft to fly into the Sun’s corona. According to NASA, the mission has three main science objectives: trace the flow of energy that heats and accelerates the corona and solar wind, determine the structure and dynamics of the plasma and magnetic fields at the sources of the solar wind, and explore mechanisms that accelerate and transport energetic particles.

Derek Richardson has a degree in mass media, with an emphasis in contemporary journalism, from Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas. While at Washburn, he was the managing editor of the student run newspaper, the Washburn Review. He also has a blog about the International Space Station, called Orbital Velocity. He met with members of the SpaceFlight Insider team during the flight of a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 551 rocket with the MUOS-4 satellite. Richardson joined our team shortly thereafter. His passion for space ignited when he watched Space Shuttle Discovery launch into space Oct. 29, 1998. Today, this fervor has accelerated toward orbit and shows no signs of slowing down. After dabbling in math and engineering courses in college, he soon realized his true calling was communicating to others about space. Since joining SpaceFlight Insider in 2015, Richardson has worked to increase the quality of our content, eventually becoming our managing editor. @TheSpaceWriter </s> Parker Solar Probe now holds the record for closest approach to the Sun by a human-made object. The spacecraft passed the current record of 26.55 million miles from the Sun’s surface on Oct. 29, 2018, at about 1:04 p.m. EDT, as calculated by the Parker Solar Probe team.

The previous record for closest solar approach was set by the German-American Helios 2 spacecraft in April 1976. As the Parker Solar Probe mission progresses, the spacecraft will repeatedly break its own records, with a final close approach of 3.83 million miles from the Sun’s surface expected in 2024.

“It’s been just 78 days since Parker Solar Probe launched, and we’ve now come closer to our star than any other spacecraft in history,” said Project Manager Andy Driesman, from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. “It’s a proud moment for the team, though we remain focused on our first solar encounter, which begins on Oct. 31.”

Parker Solar Probe is also expected to break the record for fastest spacecraft traveling relative to the Sun on Oct. 29 at about 10:54 p.m. EDT. The current record for heliocentric speed is 153,454 miles per hour, set by Helios 2 in April 1976.

The Parker Solar Probe team periodically measures the spacecraft’s precise speed and position using NASA’s Deep Space Network, or DSN. The DSN sends a signal to the spacecraft, which then retransmits it back to the DSN, allowing the team to determine the spacecraft’s speed and position based on the timing and characteristics of the signal. Parker Solar Probe’s speed and position were calculated using DSN measurements made on Oct. 24, and the team used that information along with known orbital forces to calculate the spacecraft’s speed and position from that point on.

Parker Solar Probe will begin its first solar encounter on Oct. 31, continuing to fly closer and closer to the Sun’s surface until it reaches its first perihelion — the point closest to the Sun — at about 10:28 p.m. EST on Nov. 5. The spacecraft will face brutal heat and radiation conditions while providing humanity with unprecedentedly close-up observations of a star and helping us understand phenomena that have puzzled scientists for decades. These observations will add key knowledge to NASA’s efforts to understand the Sun, where changing conditions can propagate out into the solar system, affecting Earth and other worlds. </s> NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has just become the closest ever human-made object to the Sun, passing the current record of 26.55 million miles away from the surface.

The spacecraft broke the long-standing record on October 29, 2018 at about 1.04pm EDT. The German-American Helios 2 spacecraft made the previous closest solar approach all the way back in April 1976.

The Parker Solar Probe is set to continually make and break the record for the next few years, ending with a final close encounter of just 3.83 million miles from the Sun’s surface in 2024.

“It’s been just 78 days since Parker Solar Probe launched, and we’ve now come closer to our star than any other spacecraft in history,” said project manager Andy Driesman from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, in a statement.

“It’s a proud moment for the team, though we remain focused on our first solar encounter, which begins on October 31st.”

The probe has work to do today to reach that first brush with the Sun and is expected to break the record for the fastest craft relative to the star at about 10.54pm EDT. The current record for heliocentric speed was also set by Helios 2 in April 1976 and clocked in at 153,454 miles per hour.

Using the Sun’s own gravity to assist, the spacecraft is expected to reach a mind-boggling speed of 430,000 miles per hour. That will not only break the heliocentric speed record but also make it the fastest object ever made by human hands, as my colleague Jesse Hanahan put it.

The Parker Solar Probe will endure brutal conditions of heat and radiation during its seven-year mission to answer key questions about our star, including why its corona is so hot.

The corona is the halo around the Sun that we typically see here on Earth during a solar eclipse, although its effects can also be seen in the aurorae it causes when interacting with the magnetosphere. The surface of the Sun is roughly 10,000˚F, but the corona is much hotter at several million degrees – and scientists have no idea how since the Sun’s energy is generated at its core.

The spacecraft will loop around the Sun through this blisteringly hot corona over 20 times to try to figure that out, along with how solar energy particles and solar winds are accelerated. </s> NASA’s historic Parker Solar Probe -- enroute to the Sun to unravel its mysteries -- has become the closest spacecraft to it.

The spacecraft passed the current record of 26.55 million miles from the Sun’s surface on October 29, as calculated by the Parker Solar Probe team, NASA said in a statement on Monday.

The previous record for closest solar approach was set by the German-American Helios 2 spacecraft in April 1976.

As the Parker Solar Probe mission progresses, the spacecraft will repeatedly break its own records, with a final close approach of 3.83 million miles from the Sun’s surface expected in 2024.

“It’s been just 78 days since Parker Solar Probe launched, and we’ve now come closer to our star than any other spacecraft in history,” said Project Manager Andy Driesman from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland.

“It’s a proud moment for the team, though we remain focused on our first solar encounter, which begins on October 31,” Driesman added.

The Parker Solar Probe team periodically measures the spacecraft’s precise speed and position using NASA’s Deep Space Network or DSN.

Parker Solar Probe will begin its first solar encounter on October 31, continuing to fly closer and closer to the Sun’s surface until it reaches its first perihelion -- the point closest to the Sun -- on November 5.

“The spacecraft will face brutal heat and radiation conditions while providing humanity with unprecedentedly close-up observations of a star and helping us understand phenomena that have puzzled scientists for decades,” said NASA.

Earlier this month, the probe successfully completed its first fly-by of Venus at a distance of about 1,500 miles.

Throughout its mission, the probe will make six more Venus gravity assist and 24 total passes by the Sun. </s> A NASA spacecraft zoomed toward the sun Sunday on an unprecedented quest to get closer to our star than anything ever sent before.

As soon as this fall, the Parker Solar Probe will fly straight through the wispy edges of the sun’s corona, or outer atmosphere, that was visible during last August’s total solar eclipse. It eventually will get within 3.8 million (6 million kilometres) of the surface in the years ahead, staying comfortably cool despite the extreme heat and radiation, and allowing scientists to vicariously explore the sun in a way never before possible.

No wonder scientists consider it the coolest, hottest mission under the sun, and what better day to launch to the sun than Sunday as NASA noted.

“We’re in for some learning over the next several years,” said Eugene Parker, the 91-year-old astrophysicist for whom the spacecraft is named.

Protected by a revolutionary new carbon heat shield and other high-tech wonders, the spacecraft will zip past Venus in October. That will set up the first solar encounter in November.

Altogether, the Parker probe will make 24 close approaches to the sun on the seven-year, $1.5 billion undertaking.

READ MORE: NASA is gearing up to ‘touch the sun’ with a robotic spacecraft the size of a small car

For the second straight day, thousands of spectators jammed the launch site in the middle of the night as well as surrounding towns, including Parker and his family. He proposed the existence of solar wind – a steady, supersonic stream of particles blasting off the sun – 60 years ago.

It was the first time NASA named a spacecraft after someone still alive, and Parker wasn’t about to let it take off without him. Saturday morning’s launch attempt was foiled by last-minute technical trouble. But Sunday gave way to complete success.

READ MORE: NASA’s rover finds more evidence that life on Mars may be possible

The Delta IV Heavy rocket thundered into the pre-dawn darkness, thrilling onlookers for miles around as it climbed through a clear, star-studded sky. NASA needed the mighty 23-story rocket, plus a third stage, to get the diminutive Parker probe – the size of a small car and well under a ton – racing toward the sun.

From Earth, it is 93 million miles (150 million kilometres) to the sun, and the Parker probe will be within 4 per cent of that distance at its closest. That will be seven times closer than previous spacecraft.

WATCH: A NASA space probe is set to launch with the aim of giving us the closest look ever at the sun. As Eric Sorensen reports, the journey the Parker Solar Space probe will undertake is a technical feat to match the mysteries it aims to solve.

It was the first rocket launch ever witnessed by Parker, professor emeritus at the University of Chicago. He came away impressed, saying it was like looking at the Taj Mahal for years in photos and then beholding “the real thing” in India.

NASA’s science mission chief, Thomas Zurbuchen, was thrilled not only with the launch, but Parker’s presence.

“I’m in awe,” Zurbuchen said. “What a milestone. Also what’s so cool is hanging out with Parker during all this and seeing his emotion, too.”

READ MORE: Quebec scientists preparing medical database for astronauts heading to Mars

Parker, the probe, will start shattering records this fall. On its very first brush with the sun, it will come within 15.5 million miles (25 million kilometres), easily beating the current record of 27 million miles (43 million kilometres) set by NASA’s Helios 2 spacecraft in 1976. Zurbuchen expects the data from even this early stage to yield top science papers.

By the time Parker gets to its 22nd, 23rd and 24th orbits of the sun in 2024 and 2025, it will be even deeper into the corona and travelling at a record-breaking 430,000 mph (690,000 kilometres per hour).

Nothing from Planet Earth has ever hit that kind of speed.

Even Fox has difficulty comprehending the mission’s derring-do.

Zurbuchen considers the sun the most important star in our universe – it’s ours, after all – and so this is one of NASA’s big-time strategic missions. By better understanding the sun’s life-giving and sometimes violent nature, Earthlings can better protect satellites and astronauts in orbit, and power grids on the ground, he noted. In today’s tech-dependent society, everyone stands to benefit.

With this first-of-its-kind stellar mission, scientists hope to unlock the many mysteries of the sun, a commonplace yellow dwarf star around 4.5 billion years old. Among the puzzlers: Why is the corona hundreds of times hotter than the surface of the sun and why is the sun’s atmosphere continually expanding and accelerating, as Parker accurately predicted in 1958?

“The only way we can do that is to finally go up and touch the sun,” Fox said.

The spacecraft’s heat shield will serve as an umbrella, shading the science instruments during the close, critical solar junctures. Sensors on the spacecraft will make certain the heat shield faces the sun at the right times. If there’s any tilting, the spacecraft will correct itself so nothing gets fried. With a communication lag time of 16 minutes, the spacecraft must fend for itself at the sun. The Johns Hopkins flight controllers in Laurel, Maryland, will be too far away to help.

READ MORE: Jenni Sidey-Gibbons is flying high, diving deep and learning Russian. Here’s what astronaut training is really like

A mission to get close up and personal with our star has been on NASA’s books since 1958. The trick was making the spacecraft small, compact and light enough to travel at incredible speeds, while surviving the sun’s punishing environment and the extreme change in temperature when the spacecraft is out near Venus.

“We’ve had to wait so long for our technology to catch up with our dreams,” Fox said. “It’s incredible to be standing here today.”

More than 1 million names are aboard the spacecraft, submitted last spring by space enthusiasts, as well as photos of Parker, the man, and a copy of his 1958 landmark paper on solar wind.

“I’ll bet you 10 bucks it works,” Parker said.
NASA's Parker Solar Probe spacecraft becomes the closest ever sent to the sun, by passing 42.7 million km (26.6 million miles) from the sun's surface. The previous record was set in 1976 by the Helios 2 spacecraft. Parker's elliptical orbit will eventually take it to within 6.1 million km (3.8 million miles) of the sun.