Communication with NASA’s Parker Solar Probe was interrupted shortly before the device made its closest approach to the star on December 24. NASA expects communications to be restored on December 27. For the probe, this was the 22nd approach to the Sun – the closest of all previous ones and therefore the most risky. The probe literally burst into the atmosphere of the star, the mysteries of its behavior still bother scientists.
Image source: NASA
The upper layers of the Sun’s atmosphere are its corona. The temperature of the corona can reach a fantastic 1.1 million ℃. Only its relatively low density does not allow the probe to instantly evaporate in it. There, however, closer to the Sun by about 1600 km, the temperature of the star’s photosphere drops to 4100 ℃. This looks strange – just as, for example, as if a frying pan had to be kept one and a half kilometers away from the fire for better heating. The Parker probe is tasked with searching for the origins of this physics, which is easier to do inside the process than, for example, observing it from Earth.
As part of this task, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe approached the Sun at a record close on December 24 at 14:53 Moscow time. The approach was 6.1 million km. By this time, the probe had also reached a maximum speed of 692,000 km/h. That’s 300 times faster than a fighter jet can travel. To accelerate, the probe passed close to Venus four times during the entire flight, which each time gave it acceleration without consuming fuel.
The probe’s next approach to the Sun is expected on March 22, 2025. After this, the probe should once again be guaranteed to approach the star on June 19, 2025. If it does not fail, there will be two more rendezvous in 2025, but there is no guarantee of this. In 2026, the probe is expected to be destroyed by close passes of the Sun and fall onto it. But it should also be remembered that the Sun has entered the phase of maximum activity in its 11-year cycle and is capable of destroying the probe at any moment in one of the random energy or coronal mass ejections.