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| NASA parker solar probe. |
The NASA Parker Solar Probe Gets Closer To The Sun.
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe is the fastest man-made object that has ever been built as it begins its 8th solar encounter.
It got to its closest region, called the perihelion. The Parker Solar Probe came close to about 6.5 million miles of the Sun’s surface, as it moved faster than 330,000 miles per hour, which set new records for speed and solar proximity.
A few days ago, on the 25th of April, the spacecraft transmitted a “tone one” beacon to its operators at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, in Maryland, showing that all of its systems were normal heading to its closest approach.
All of its four onboard instrument have started gathering data on the solar environment and about the solar wind as it streams from directly from the Sun. It will continue to collect science data Until May 4th.
The NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has proven us that there’s a lot more interconnected activity close to the Sun than we know.
With this closest approach visible from Earth, we now have a great opportunity to put more eyes as we can on the Sun to help us create a bigger picture.
Parker Solar Probe Project Scientist Nour Raouafi of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, Maryland said
“We really appreciate the enthusiastic cooperation of so many observatory and mission teams to make that happen.”