Deutsche Welle (DW)

NASA scientists have announced that the Parker Solar Probe survived zooming by the sun at a record-breaking closest distance.

The craft collected precious data which researchers say will aid work on solar wind, particles and the sun’s atmosphere, DW reports.

WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE MISSION

The mission was carried out by a team at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland.

“The team was out of contact with the spacecraft during closest approach, which occurred on Dec. 24, with Parker Solar Probe zipping just 3.8 million miles from the solar surface while moving about 430,000 miles per hour,” Michael Buckley, spokesperson for the laboratory, said in a statement.

On December 26, the team received a signal from the probe indicating that it is in “good health and operating normally.”

Scientists expect detailed data from the NASA-developed spacecraft on January 1.

ABOUT THE PROBE

The craft was built to endure temperatures up to 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit (about 980 degrees Celsius), enough to survive in the sun’s outer atmosphere.

Launched in 2018, the probe’s mission is to complete 24 orbits around the sun in seven years.

The close approach to the sun allowed the probe to collect measurements that will help scientists study how the sun’s outer atmosphere gets “heated to millions of degrees,” trace the flow of energy and discover how solar wind accelerates to near light speed.

Previous solar probes have helped researchers to understand the structures of solar wind and to map out the structure of the sun’s atmosphere.