Parker Solar probe sends 'historic beacon' post closest ever Sun flyby

NASA's Parker Solar Probe Friday December 27, 2024 sent beacon signaling it is safe and in action after the historic closest ever Sun flyby

Washington: NASA's Parker Solar Probe Friday December 27, 2024 sent beacon signaling it is safe and in action after the historic closest ever Sun flyby.

The Parker Solar Probe came closest ever to the biggest and only star of our solar system on December 24, 2024 or Christmas Eve when it was just 6.1 million km or 3.8 million miles.

The solar probe sent Friday December 27, 2024 a beacon, and confirmed it is safe and in action after the closest ever Sun flyby.

Parker Solar Probe is a NASA robotic spacecraft en route to probe the outer corona of the Sun. Launched in 2018, the car-size Parker Solar Probe, was developed as part of NASA’s Living With a Star program to explore aspects of the Sun-Earth system that directly affect life and society.

The Living With a Star program is managed by the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. APL designed, built, and operates the spacecraft and manages the mission for NASA.

'Parker Makes History'

The Parker had made last contact with the communication centre back here on December 20, and resumed contact on December 27 - after seven days of silence as it approached closest to Sun on December 24.

"Operations teams have confirmed NASA’s mission to “touch” the Sun survived its record-breaking closest approach to the solar surface on Dec. 24, 2024.

"After seven days of silence, Parker has resumed communication with Earth, confirming it's healthy after soaring just 3.8 million miles from the solar surface — the closest a human-made object has ever been to a star", NASA said.

On Christmas Eve, Parker broke its previous record by flying just 3.8 million miles above the surface of the Sun, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe hurtled through the solar atmosphere at a blazing 430,000 miles per hour — faster than any human-made object has ever moved.

"Flying this close to the Sun is a historic moment in humanity’s first mission to a star,” said Nicky Fox, who leads the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

“By studying the Sun up close, we can better understand its impacts throughout our solar system, including on the technology we use daily on Earth and in space, as well as learn about the workings of stars across the universe to aid in our search for habitable worlds beyond our home planet", she said.

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