NASA announced that its Parker Solar Probe is safe and functioning normally after achieving the closest-ever approach to the Sun by a human-made spacecraft.

The announcement was made on December 27.

On December 24, the probe flew within 3.8 million miles (6.1 million kilometres) of the Sun’s surface, entering the solar atmosphere known as the corona.

During the “historic flyby,” referred to as perihelion, mission teams temporarily lost direct contact with the spacecraft and relied on a “beacon tone” to monitor its status.

The operations team at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland confirmed the probe’s condition when they received the signal just before midnight on Thursday.

Traveling at speeds of up to 430,000 mph (692,000 kph), the Parker Solar Probe withstood temperatures reaching 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit (982 degrees Celsius).

NASA stated that this close-up study of the Sun will provide crucial data to help scientists understand how materials in this region are heated, trace the origins of the solar wind, and explore how energetic particles are accelerated to near light speed.

Launched in 2018, the Parker Solar Probe has been gradually moving closer to the Sun, using gravitational assists from Venus to tighten its orbit.

Read more

NASA delays space shuttle launch until next year

Signal received from 10 million miles away to NASA

NASA to reveal crew for 2024 flight around the Moon

This Christmas Eve flyby marks the first of three record-setting close encounters, with the next two expected on March 22, 2025, and June 19, 2025, bringing the probe back to similar distances from the Sun.