The solar probe "alive" after being closer to Sun: NASA

Parker's first phase of solar encounter Solar Probe began on October 31 and the probe will continue to collect scientific data until the end of the solar encounter phase on November 11. (Image: NASA)

Parker Solar Probe, NASA's historic mission to solve the mysteries of the sun, is alive and well after flying over the sun just 15 million kilometers from its surface. It is much closer to all the spacecraft – the previous record was set by Helios B in 1976 and defeated by Parker on October 29 – and this maneuver exposed the spacecraft to intense heat and solar radiation in a complex environment of solar winds, NASA said in a statement Thursday.

On November 5, the spacecraft made its closest approach, called perihelion. The Parker solar sensor reached a top speed of 213,200 miles at the time, setting a new speed record for spacecraft. At this distance, the intense sunlight heated the thermal shield of the sun-exposed probe, called the thermal protection system, to about 820 degrees Fahrenheit. According to NASA, the temperature will rise to 2500 Fahrenheit as the spacecraft approaches the Sun.

HOT DEALS

"The Parker Solar Probe was designed to take care of itself and its valuable payload during this close-up approach, with us having no control over the Earth – and now we know that this has been successful, "said Thomas Zurbuchen, badociate director of the NASA Science Mission Directorate in Washington, DC On November 7, the mission controllers at Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory received the status of the space probe at 16:46 (EST)

Read also: NASA's Parker solar probe records images of the Earth

The beacon indicated status "A" – the best of the four possible status signals, which means that Parker Solar Probe works properly with all instruments working and collecting scientific data.If there were minor problems, they were solved in a way that tonome by the spaceship. "Parker is the culmination of six decades of scientific progress. Now we have made the first visit of humanity to our star, which will have implications not only on Earth, but also for a deeper understanding of our universe, "added Zurbuchen.

Read also: What is NASA Parker Solar? Probe?

Parker Solar Probe's first solar encounter phase began on Oct. 31 and the probe will continue to collect scientific data up to At the end of the solar encounter phase on November 11. It will be several weeks after the end of the solar encounter phase before the scientific data starts to come back to Earth. NASA that his craft will repeatedly fly on its own speed record as its orbit approaches the star and it will move faster and faster to perihelion.

To download the latest inform on the technology, download Indian Express App