NASA‘s Parker Solar Probe reached its closest point to the Sun on December 24, 2024, breaking the record for the closest approach ever made by a spacecraft to the Sun. Parker passed just 6.1 million kilometers (3.8 million miles) from the Sun’s surface, setting a new record for humanity’s closest solar pass.
This distance is equivalent to just 4 centimeters of the one-meter length between Earth and the Sun.
During this close flyby, the spacecraft was exposed to temperatures of approximately 980 degrees Celsius. To withstand the Sun’s heat and radiation, Parker is equipped with a special 11.5-centimeter thick carbon-composite heat shield.
SCIENTIFIC GOALS
Parker Solar Probe aims to better understand our star by moving through the Sun’s atmosphere, known as the corona. This region is normally visible only during solar eclipses. One of Parker’s scientific goals is to explain why the corona is hotter than the Sun’s surface and how solar winds are accelerated.
Solar flares from the Sun can have adverse effects on both space-based electronics and electrical grids on Earth. Parker’s efforts to unravel these processes are not only of theoretical interest but also of practical significance.
FUTURE MISSIONS
Parker will make its next close pass on June 19, 2025. This will be the third closest pass as it moves towards the completion of its primary mission. One of Parker’s ultimate objectives is to record a major solar flare (coronal mass ejection) and transmit detailed data about such events back to Earth.
PARKER’S LEGACY
When Parker’s fuel runs out, mission operators will turn the spacecraft toward the Sun. The spacecraft, unable to withstand the Sun’s radiation, will largely burn up, though its heat shield may survive.
This will mark the spacecraft’s final journey, but its engineering success will live on as a legacy, continuing to orbit the Sun for billions of years.
Parker Solar Probe has secured its place in scientific history as one of humanity’s boldest steps in understanding the Sun.