NASA’s Parker Solar Probe is set for a groundbreaking maneuver on November 6 as it swings close to Venus for a final gravitational assist, positioning it to reach a record proximity to the sun next month, Newsweek reports.
Launched in 2018, the probe has been on a mission to gather unprecedented data on solar activity by approaching the sun closer than any spacecraft in history.
This Venus flyby, the Parker Probe’s seventh, will leverage the planet’s gravitational pull to accelerate the probe and adjust its trajectory, enabling it to eventually reach a mere 3.86 million miles from the sun’s surface on December 24. This distance will mark the closest approach ever by a human-made object, shattering Parker’s own record from 2023, when it passed within 4.51 million miles of the sun.
While this distance might seem significant, it is extremely close by astronomical standards, as Mercury, the closest planet to the sun, orbits around 41 million miles away.
“We are basically almost landing on a star,” said Nour Raouafi, project scientist for the Parker Solar Probe mission at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.
The flyby also presents a unique opportunity for scientists to study Venus’s surface. Using its Wide-Field Imager for Parker Solar Probe (WISPR) instrument, Parker will capture near-infrared images of the planet’s searing surface, where temperatures can reach 870°F. This imaging capability could potentially reveal new details about Venus’s physical and chemical surface properties, explained space scientist Noam Izenberg.
After this final gravitational boost, the probe is expected to reach speeds of up to 430,000 miles per hour, making it one of the fastest objects ever made by humans. Once in position, Parker will dive into the sun’s outer atmosphere, or corona, directly encountering plumes of solar plasma. According to NASA, this will allow it to collect critical data on the behavior of solar winds, magnetic fields, and the mechanisms behind solar flares, which can impact Earth’s satellite systems and power grids.
Named after solar astrophysicist Eugene Parker, who developed the theory of solar wind, the Parker Solar Probe mission aims to shed light on the sun’s intense and dynamic activity, contributing to a greater understanding of how solar phenomena affect the solar system.
As it reaches its final position on December 24, Parker will be out of communication with Earth for about three days. NASA expects the probe to send a beacon on December 27 to confirm its entry into orbit and relay data on its health and mission status.
