Following the successful completion of the closest-ever visit to the Sun by any man-made object, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said on Friday that its Parker Solar Probe was “safe” and functioning normally.
On December 24, the spacecraft, which was on a mission to assist scientists in understanding more about Earth’s closest star, flew into the sun’s outer atmosphere, known as the corona, passing barely 3.8 million miles (6.1 million kilometers) from the solar surface.
Just before midnight on Thursday, the probe sent a beacon tone signal to the operations team at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland, according to the agency
“This close-up study of the Sun allows Parker Solar Probe to take measurements that help scientists better understand how material in this region gets heated to millions of degrees, trace the origin of the solar wind (a continuous flow of material escaping the Sun), and discover how energetic particles are accelerated to near-light speed,” the agency said, adding that the spacecraft is expected to send detailed telemetry data about its status on January 1.
The spacecraft traveled at up to 430,000 mph (692,000 kph) and endured temperatures of up to 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit (982 degrees Celsius), according to the NASA website.
Since its 2018 launch, the Parker Solar Probe has been progressively moving closer to the sun by gravitationally drawing it into a closer orbit with it through flybys of Venus.
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