NASA's Parker Solar Probe travels at high speeds due to the strong gravitational pull it experiences as it approaches the Sun.
NASA's Parker Solar Probe is expected to fly by the Sun at an incredible 435,000 mph (195 km/s) on December 24 next year, marking a milestone in space exploration history.
Compared to our star, it is only 6.1 million kilometers or 3.8 million miles from its „surface”; No other human-made object could have traveled so fast or come so close.
„We're basically almost landing on a star,” said Parker Project Scientist Dr Noor Rouwafi.
„This would be a monumental achievement for all of humanity. It would be the equivalent of the 1969 moon landing,” said the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory scientist. BBC.
Parker will travel at high speeds due to the strong gravitational pull it experiences as it approaches the Sun. It would be like taking a quick 30 second flight from New York to London.
One of the most daring missions ever imagined was the US space agency's Parker Solar Probe.
Its 2018 launch is intended to make multiple, ever-closer approaches to the Sun.
Parker will travel just 4% of the Sun-Earth distance (149 million km/93 million miles) during the maneuver in late 2024.
Parker is going to have a tough task ahead of him. Temperatures in the front of the spacecraft can hit 1,400C at perihelion, the closest the spacecraft is to the star in its orbit.