Get ready to feel the heat! 🔥 NASA's Parker Solar Probe is gearing up to swoop closer to the sun than any spacecraft ever before. Launched in 2018, this intrepid explorer has already flown straight through the sun's corona—the glowing halo you see during a total solar eclipse. 🌕✨
But Parker isn't stopping there! On Tuesday, it's set to dive within a jaw-dropping 3.8 million miles (6 million kilometers) of the sun's surface. To put that into perspective, if the sun and Earth were on opposite ends of a football field, Parker would be chilling at the 4-yard line! 🏈 That's insanely close!
As it makes this daring plunge, Parker will be blazing at speeds up to 430,000 mph (690,000 kph), making it the fastest spacecraft ever built. Talk about speed demons! 🏎️ And with its super-tough heat shield, it can withstand temperatures up to 2,500°F (1,371°C). That's hotter than your mom's oven on Thanksgiving! 🍗🔥
Mission managers will be on the edge of their seats since Parker will be out of communication range during the flyby. We won't know how it fared until days later. Suspense much? 😬
Why risk it? Scientists are hoping to unlock the mysteries of why the sun's corona is hundreds of times hotter than its surface and what drives the solar wind—the stream of charged particles blasting through our solar system. This could help us understand solar storms that can mess with our tech back on Earth. 📡🌐
As NASA's Joe Westlake aptly put it, the sun "both is our closest, friendliest neighbor, but also at times is a little angry." Couldn't agree more! 🌞😅
Stay tuned, space fans! This is one cosmic event you don't want to miss! 🌌🚀
Reference(s):
NASA's solar probe aims to fly closer to the sun like never before
cgtn.com
