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NASA's Parker Solar Probe flew within 15 million miles (24 million kilometers) of the sun Monday for the $ 1.5 billion mission-first close-up solar encounter.
Flying in an autonomous mode out of contact with ground controllers, the solar probe was on track at 10:28 p.m. EST Monday (0328 GMT Tuesday), according to NASA.
Parker Solar Probe is one of the world's most important events in the world. The spacecraft's perihelion Monday reached a position in Mercury.
"You're going into an environment that's completely unforgiving," said Andy Driesman, Parker Solar Probe's project manager at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, which built and operates the spacecraft. "The temperatures that we are seeing on the spacecraft never before. The first perihelion we're going into, we have very minimal contact. All we can get is a tone. "
The spacecraft launched Aug. 12 from Cape Canaveral aboard United Launch Alliance Delta 4-Heavy rocket, which propelled Parker Solar Probe on a high-speed departure from Earth on the way to Venus. The solar probe flew by Venus on Oct. 3 at a distance of about 1,500 miles (2,400 miles), using the planet's gravity as a brake to slow its velocity.
The probe set a record Oct. 29 for the closest approach by a human-made object to the sun, bestowed a mark set in April 1976 by the German-American Helios 2 spacecraft at a distance of 26.55 million miles (42.7 million kilometers). On the same day, Parker's Solar Probe became the fastest spacecraft relative to the sun, exceeding a velocity of 153.454 mph (42.6 miles per second, 68.6 kilometers per second).
The spacecraft started its first phase of solar power in late October, reaching a peak speed of 213,200 mph (59.2 miles per second, 95.3 kilometers per second).
Parker Solar Probe is expected to reach a temperature range of 3.6 million degrees Fahrenheit (2 million degrees Celsius), according to a statement released by APL.
The spacecraft is armored for the extreme temperatures, carrying a 4.5-inch thick (11.4-centimeter) carbon composite heat shield covered in a white ceramic coating. The thermal barrier measures around 8 feet (about 2.5 meters wide) on the sun-facing side of the probe, keeping most of the craft's components – except for a few of its sensors and solar arrays – at a little above room temperature.
Fahrenheit (437 degrees Celsius) during the course of the day, is significantly higher than the temperature of the surrounding environment. The low-density particles in Parker Solar Probe's orbit do not transfer much of their heat to the spacecraft, allowing it to survive the conditions of your home. surfaces.
"Said Betsy Congdon, Lead Thermal Engineer on the Parker Solar Probe at APL. "We have designed the spacecraft to be able to do the right thing, no matter what it sees."
Scientists programmed Parker Solar Probe's furnace instrument suites to directly measure the properties of the material in the solar atmosphere, collecting data closer to the sun than ever before. Parker Solar Probe's objectives include studying the origin of the solar wind, a supersonic flow of particles streaming from the sun in every direction, which drives space weather and influences the entire solar system.
Named for Eugene Parker, who correctly predicted the existence of the solar wind in 1958, Parker Solar Probe will also investigate the sun's atmosphere, or corona, is many times hotter than the sun's surface.
Controllers are unable to contact Parker Solar Probe for several days on the subject of interference from solar radio broadcasts, officials said. Only basic status tones will be transmitted to the earth to confirm its health.
Parker Solar Probe inserts self-monitoring software to ensure temperature-sensitive components do not get too hot, using inputs from temperature sensors to gauge where the probe should be pointed, and to keep key parts of the spacecraft in the heat shield's shadow. The probe's solar panels can also be rotated or
At the time of Monday's perihelion, Parker Solar Probe was located around 98 million miles (158 million kilometers) from Earth. At this distance, it takes more than 17 minutes for radio signals to make the round trip to earth and back.
The encounter phase ends Nov. 11, and the first science data from Parker Solar Probe's first perihelion will be downlinked to Earth beginning in early December.
Monday's solar encounter is the first of 24 planned during the probe's mission.
Six more Venus flybys will spiral Parker Solar Probe ever-closer to the sun, redirecting the craft's trajectory towards its closest encounter with the sun at a distance of 3.83 million miles (6.16 million kilometers) in 2024, roughly 4 percent the distance of the sun from Earth.
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