NASA's Parker Probe Makes History; 6 Million Kilometers Left to the Sun

The Parker probe made history on Tuesday, January 4, by reaching a distance of 6.2 million kilometers from the Sun. No spacecraft has ever come this close to the Sun before. This solar probe was launched in 2018 for a seven-year mission by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). According to NASA, the goal of Parker is to gain a deeper scientific understanding of planets and to help predict space weather events that can impact life on Earth. The probe reached its closest distance to the Sun at 6:53 AM Eastern Time on January 4 (3:23 PM Iran time). Although the scientists involved in this project say they will have to wait a few more days for more information, communication between the spacecraft and Earth was interrupted for several days due to the probe's extreme proximity to the Sun. Eric Posner, a researcher on the Parker Solar Probe program, described this mission as one of NASA's bold initiatives aimed at finding answers to questions about the unknowns of the universe and mentioned that team members are eagerly awaiting Parker's findings in the coming days. The probe's heat shield can withstand temperatures between 870 to 930 degrees Celsius, while the interior of the spacecraft remains around 29 degrees to prevent issues with advanced instruments and equipment. The probe travels at a speed of about 690,000 kilometers per hour. To better understand this speed, it can be said that this spacecraft can cover the distance from Washington D.C. to Tokyo in less than a minute. Nick Pinkin, operations manager at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, stated that no probe has ever come this close to the Sun and that Parker will certainly return with significant findings from an unknown planet. Up to this point, Parker has already provided valuable insights to scientists, including how solar winds are generated, the reason for the higher temperatures of the upper layers of the planet compared to the lower surface, and the type of ejection of massive plasma clouds into space, which were considered space mysteries. This probe will come close to the Sun two more times next year and will continue its investigations of this burning planet.