NASA's Parker Solar Probe Completes 14th Close Encounter with The Sun

NASA's Parker Solar Probe Completes 14th Close Encounter with The Sun

On Dec. 6, 2022, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe began the 14th of 24 planned close approaches to the Sun. The closest approach—called perihelion— occurred on Dec. 11, 2022, at 8:16 a.m. EST, during which the spacecraft traveled at 364,639 miles per hour—fast enough to fly from New York to Tokyo in just over a minute. 

During the encounter, which ends Dec. 16, 2022, the European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter, NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory-A (STEREO-A), and radar telescopes on Earth will view the Sun from the same angle as Parker at the beginning of the encounter. They will slowly progress to an approximately 90-degree angle from Parker on the inbound side of the encounter. 

The European Space Agency’s BepiColombo mission will start out viewing the Sun from the same angle as Parker and progress to observing the Sun from an approximately 90-degree angle from Parker on the outbound side of the encounter. This orientation could provide an opportunity to observe a solar event from all sides. 

Parker Solar Probe Mission Information:

Learn more: https://jhuapl.link/psp-wzk

Parker Solar Probe is humanity’s first mission to the sun. After launch, it will orbit directly through the solar atmosphere–the corona–closer to the surface than any human-made object has ever gone. While facing brutal heat and radiation, the mission will reveal fundamental science behind what drives the solar wind, the constant outpouring of material from the sun that shapes planetary atmospheres and affects space weather near Earth.

Parker Solar Probe is part of NASA’s Living With a Star Program to explore aspects of the connected sun-Earth system that directly affect life and society.

Video Credit: Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab (APL)

Duration: 1 minute, 15 seconds

Release Date: Dec. 15, 2022

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