At its closest orbital point to the Sun, the temperature at the front of the Parker Solar Probe will likely reach 1,400 degrees Celsius.
Infographic on the Parker Solar Probe program. Docks. NASA
JAKARTA – NASA aims its Parker Solar Probe spacecraft to pass the Sun at its closest ever distance around December 24, 2024.
If this goal can be achieved according to plan, it will be a monumental achievement in the world of space. Equivalent to the 1969 moon landing.
“This will be a monumental achievement for all of humanity. This is equivalent to the Moon landing in 1969,” said Johns Hopkins University astrophysicist, who is also a Parker Solar Probe mission project scientist, Dr. Nour E Raouafi at the BBC.
Flying on the “touch the sun” mission, the Parker Solar Probe spacecraft was first launched on August 12, 2018. With the primary mission of obtaining information to help humans gain a deeper understanding of the Sun, this craft unmanned is destined to be within a distance of only 6.1 million kilometers, or 3.8 million miles from the “surface” of the Sun.
If you look at the history of previous Sun observation missions, the maximum reachable distance was only 43.432 million kilometers or 27 million miles. It was carried out by NASA’s Helios-B spacecraft on April 17, 1976.
Aside from distance, the Parker Solar Probe spacecraft is also said to be capable of setting a speed record, reaching 435,000 mph (miles/hour). This speed also far exceeded that of the Helios-B, which at that time could only reach 252,792 km/h (157,078 mph).
As an illustration, the speed that the Parker Solar Probe can achieve will be equivalent to flying from New York to London in less than 30 seconds. This speed can be achieved because it is supported by the great gravitational pull of the Sun.
Although the Parker Solar Probe spacecraft has repeatedly passed the Sun at increasingly closer distances since 2018, the goal in 2024 is clearly a mission full of challenges.
One of the main challenges is the temperature of the Sun, which will be very hot. At perihelion, or the closest orbital point to the sun, the temperature at the front of the Parker Solar Probe will likely reach 1,400 degrees Celsius.
Considering the challenges faced, NASA scientists hope that this mission closer to the Sun could provide a major breakthrough in understanding a series of processes that occur in the solar system. Most important is a clearer explanation of how the corona, the Sun’s outer atmosphere, works.
Additionally, it is hoped that the measurements and images Parker Solar Probe will obtain will help scientists learn more about the origin of the solar wind and how it evolved. This will make an important contribution to efforts to predict changes in the space environment that affect life and technology on Earth.
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2024-01-02 03:30:47
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