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NASA’s sun-shaving spacecraft makes its ninth daring dive past our neighborhood star in an ongoing quest to uncover the secrets of how the sun works.
Parker Solar Probe was closest to the sun on its last flyby on Monday, August 9 at 3:10 p.m. EDT (1910 GMT), when the spacecraft was about 6.5 million miles (10.4 million kilometers) from the surface of the sun. At that time, the probe was traveling at approximately 330,000 mph (532,000 km / h). The spacecraft focuses on understanding the mechanism by which the sun’s atmosphere gets so hot – thousands of degrees hotter than the sun’s surface – and the origins of the solar wind, a constant stream of charged particles that flow through the system. solar.
As the spacecraft flies closer and closer to the sun, it is in a better position to unravel these mysteries. “We are entering the critical phase of the Parker mission and we are focusing on quite a few things during this meeting,” said Nour E. Raouafi, Parker Solar Probe project scientist at the applied physics laboratory at Johns University. Hopkins, in a NASA statement. .
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“We expect the spacecraft to fly over the accelerating zone of the perpetual flow of charged particles that make up the solar wind,” Raouafi added. “Solar activity is also picking up, which holds promise for studying larger scale solar wind structures, such as coronal mass ejections, and the energetic particles associated with them.”
During Monday’s flyby, the spacecraft equaled its existing records – which are also the records of humanity as a whole – for the closest approach to the sun and the fastest-moving object a spatialship. However, Parker Solar Probe will soon resume its streak of records.
In October, the mission will fly over Venus for the fifth time, using the planet’s gravity to adjust its trajectory in space and sneak even closer to the sun. After this year’s maneuver, two more Venus flyovers remain on the spacecraft’s agenda before the end of its current scheduled mission, which will take place in 2025. By then, the spacecraft will fly at just 3.8 million miles (6.1 million kilometers) from the surface of the sun.
While the team behind Parker Solar Probe have certain expectations as to what today’s observations will show, it’s always possible that scientists will stumble upon another solar surprise.
“You never know what else you’ll find exploring so close to the sun,” Raouafi said, “and it’s always exciting.”
Email Meghan Bartels at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter @meghanbartels. follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
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