NASA's Parker Solar Probe to Make Historic Christmas Eve Flyby of the Sun

NASA's Parker Solar Probe is set to make its closest approach to the sun ever recorded, and it will happen on Christmas Eve! The spacecraft will glide just 3.8 million miles from the sun's blazing surface, marking a significant milestone in our exploration of our star.

This groundbreaking flyby, referred to as a perihelion, is scheduled for 6:53 AM Eastern Time (11:53 GMT) on December 24. However, during this daring maneuver, the mission team anticipates losing contact with the spacecraft until December 27, when they hope to receive a "beacon tone" confirming that everything is functioning well. Fortunately, just a few days prior, on December 20, the Parker team received a transmission indicating that the probe was operating normally, relayed through NASA’s Deep Space Network in Canberra, Australia.

Launched in August 2018, the Parker Solar Probe is on a mission that will last seven years, aiming to enhance our understanding of solar phenomena and improve our ability to predict space weather events that can have significant effects on life on Earth. The probe carries the name of revolutionary astrophysicist Eugene Parker, who made significant contributions to solar science and passed away in 2022 at the age of 94.

"This is an unprecedented achievement—no human-made object has ever ventured this close to a star. Parker is sending back data from a realm previously unexplored," expressed Nick Pinkine, mission operations manager at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. "We're looking forward to the spacecraft's return data after it makes its daring swing around the sun."

Though 3.8 million miles may seem like a long distance, the Parker Solar Probe will be flying through the sun's outer atmosphere, the corona. To put it in perspective, if the distance from Earth to the sun were scaled to 100 meters, the Parker Probe would be a mere 4 meters away at its closest approach.

The probe is equipped with a specialized 4.5-inch thick carbon-composite heat shield to shield it from blistering temperatures reaching upwards of 1,600 to 1,700 degrees Fahrenheit (approximately 870 to 930 degrees Celsius). This ensures that its internal instruments remain at a relatively cool, room temperature.

In an awe-inspiring feat of engineering, the spacecraft will travel at enormous speeds of about 430,000 miles per hour (690,000 kilometers per hour), which is more than 550 times the speed of sound—fast enough to travel from Washington D.C. to Tokyo in under a minute!

Dr. Nicola Fox, NASA’s head of science, elaborated, "Understanding the dynamics of our own sun is crucial as we scout for planets capable of supporting life in other solar systems. It helps us identify what types of stars to seek in the larger universe as we pursue an increasing number of exoplanet discoveries."

The Parker Solar Probe is already beginning to unlock some of the sun's greatest mysteries, like the origins of solar wind, the mechanisms behind coronal mass ejections—massive bursts of plasma—and the enigma of why the corona is hotter than the sun's surface.

Additionally, the spacecraft has utilized gravitational assists from Venus during its mission to adjust its trajectory closer to the sun. The latest flyby on November 6 allowed it to capture unprecedented data, including visible and near-infrared images, providing scientists with insights previously unattainable with existing radar and infrared techniques.

This exciting Christmas Eve flyby is merely the first of three remarkable encounters planned for the Parker Solar Probe. The next two close approaches are scheduled for March 22, 2025, and June 19, 2025, bringing the probe back to heart of solar activity.

"This is just one example of NASA's daring initiatives, breaking barriers to answer age-old questions about our universe," remarked Arik Posner, program scientist for the Parker mission at NASA headquarters.

Stay tuned as we witness history in the making this holiday season, and as NASA continues to explore the uncharted territories of our solar system!