“No human object has ever passed this close to a star”
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe “writes” history by flying into its outer atmosphere sun called the corona in a mission that will help scientists learn more about the nearest star to Earth.
“No human object has ever passed this close to a star, so Parker will actually return data from uncharted territory,” said Nick Pinkine, director of operations at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, in a NASA blog, quoted in ERT.
Parker was scheduled to fly 3.8 million miles (6.1 million kilometers) from the sun’s surface at 6:53 a.m. EST (1153 GMT).
Her staff NASA will temporarily lose contact with the vessel, expecting to receive a signal on Friday.
On its approach to the Sun, the Parker Solar Probe will travel at a speed of 690,000 km/h – which would allow it to reach from Tokyo to Washington in less than a minute. Its heat shield is designed to withstand extreme temperatures of 870-930 degrees Celsius.
