The Parker Solar Probe will reach astonishing speeds as it dips close to our star's surface in 2024.

It promises to be a remarkable moment in the history of space exploration.

A year from now, on 24 December, Nasa’s Parker Solar Probe will race past the Sun at the astonishing speed of 195 km/s, or 435,000 mph.

No human-made object will have moved so fast nor, indeed, got so close to our star - just 6.1 million km, or 3.8 million miles from the Sun’s “surface”.

“We are basically almost landing on a star,” said Parker project scientist Dr Nour Raouafi.

“This will be a monumental achievement for all humanity. This is equivalent to the Moon landing of 1969,” the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory scientist told BBC News.

    • Heggico@lemmy.world
      32·
      1 year ago

      The sun is 1.4 million kilometers in diameter. 6 meter from a 1 meter diameter sphere is relatively close.

      Also the sun’s corona stretches out about 8 million kilometers from its surface, so for this probe its like its moving inside the earths atmosphere.

      So… pretty dang close.

    • jettrscga@lemmy.world
      163·
      1 year ago

      For perspective because I didn’t know either:

      Mercury from sun: 49.93 million km

      Earth from sun: 147.11 million km

      Still sounds sensationalist to say it’s like landing on the sun, but close on the solar system scale.

    • LogicalDrivelEnglish
      11·
      1 year ago

      I was curious so I asked GPT. Pretty interesting stuff

      The solar corona is the outermost layer of the Sun’s atmosphere. Its outer boundary is not well-defined, and its extent varies depending on solar activity. However, on average, the solar corona extends several solar radii above the Sun’s surface. One solar radius is approximately 696,340 kilometers.

      During a total solar eclipse, when the Moon completely blocks the Sun, the outer parts of the solar corona become visible to observers on Earth. At that time, the corona can be seen extending far beyond the Sun’s visible disk. The temperature of the solar corona is much higher than the temperature of the Sun’s surface, and the reason for this temperature difference is still a topic of scientific research.

      While the solar corona is not a fixed distance from the Sun’s surface, it typically extends millions of kilometers into space. The exact dimensions can vary depending on solar activity, such as the solar cycle and the presence of solar flares or coronal mass ejections.