NASA's Energy Probe is Getting Extremely Close to the Sun
On its historic mission to explore the fiery star, the Parker spacecraft is ready to approach the Sun's 1,300-degree Celsius temperature zone.
The Parker Solar Probe is said to be on a groundbreaking mission to "touch the Sun".
The journey marks the closest encounter with the Sun of any man-made object in human history. It begins its approach to the Sun and will not communicate with Earth for several days.
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| The Parker spacecraft is on its way to a special mission for humanity. |
During the encounter, all four instruments on board Parker will collect data from the Sun's atmosphere, or "coronal hole." Any data collected will be sent back to Earth within a few weeks.
The Parker spacecraft is expected to enter the zone of no further travel in 2024 and burn up under the extreme heat of this fiery star.
Researchers are hoping the £1.2bn mission will give NASA a close-up look at how the Sun lives.
"The Parker spacecraft will provide unprecedented information about our Sun, where changing conditions can spread out into the solar system to affect Earth and other worlds. It will track how energy and heat move through the Sun's atmosphere and explore what accelerates the solar wind and energetic particles," NASA explains.
The Parker spacecraft, successfully launched by NASA on August 12, 2018, will reach a speed equivalent to 692,000 km/hour as it approaches the Sun.
NASA said the unmanned spacecraft will reach a speed of 692,000 km/h, or about 201 km/s, on December 24, 2024.
