A NASA spacecraft is about to give astronomers an epic early Christmas present with the closest ever flyby of the sun on Dec. 24, but if you’re wondering exactly when the ambitious solar encounter will occur, don’t worry. We’ve got you covered.
The NASA spacecraft, called the Parker Solar Probe, is on course for what will be a record-setting close flyby of the sun on Christmas Eve, when it will fly through the star’s outer atmosphere at 6:53 a.m. EST (1153 GMT) and pass within 3.8 million miles (6.1 million kilometers) of the star’s surface The flyby is the final trial for the Parker Solar Probe, which has made a series of ever-closer swings by the star (and seven flybys of Venus) on its mission to understand the sun like never before.
“No human-made object has ever passed this close to a star, so Parker will truly be returning data from uncharted territory,” said Nick Pinkine, Parker Solar Probe mission operations manager at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (JHUAPL) in Maryland, in a statement. “We’re excited to hear back from the spacecraft when it swings back around the sun.”
What time will NASA’s Parker Solar Probe fly through the sun?
As mentioned above, the Parker Solar Probe’s closest sun flyby will occur on Tuesday, Dec. 24, at 6:53 a.m. EST (1153 GMT). At that exact time, the spacecraft will be at its closest point it will ever be to the sun: 3.8 million miles.
The Christmas Eve flyby will mark Parker’s 22nd close encounter with the sun since its launch in 2018 (the first time it “touched the sun” was in 2021). The spacecraft will be flying at about 430,000 mph (692,000 kph), a mind-blowing speed which it reached by accelerating up via gravity assists from its seven Venus flybys, most recently in November.
During the Dec. 24 sun flyby, the Parker Solar Probe will fly through the sun’s corona, its super-hot outer atmosphere, to study exactly why the region is so hot and other solar phenomena. The spacecraft has already set a new record as the closest human-built object to fly so close to the sun, and is flying seven times closer to the star than any other spacecraft.
Can I watch the Parker Solar Probe sun flyby online?
No, you will not be able to watch the Parker Solar Probe’s sun flyby live online.
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