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The fastest NASA solar probe ever built broke two records as it approached the star

The fastest NASA solar probe ever built broke two records as it approached the star

Published:

May 5, 2021 04:14 GMT

On April 29, it implemented its eighth successful approach, currently experiencing temperatures above 650 ° C.

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe – the size of a small car – made its eighth successful approach to the sun on April 29, called “perihelion,” and Smash his distance and speed numbersAnd the They have communicated Those responsible for the mission.

The probe was launched in August 2018 to study the sun, and it was able to reach a distance of 10.4 million kilometers from its surface, while it was moving at a speed of more than 532 thousand kilometers per hour.

Parker Established Two previous records came in February 2020, when it approached the star at a distance of 18.6 million kilometers at a speed of 393,044 kilometers per hour, making it the closest space probe to the Sun and Earth. The fastest human-built object.

Noor Al-Rawafi, a scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory Mission, which also designed and built the probe, said.

Within two and a half years of its nearly seven-year mission, the probe remains in great shape due to its thermal protection system, bearing in mind that it is currently facing Temperatures above 650 ° C. Parker is expected to eventually travel about 6.5 million kilometers from the surface of the Sun, where he will have to endure temperatures of around 1,400 degrees Celsius.

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