NASA: Probe ‘Safe’ After Closest Flyby of the Sun

An artist's rendering of the Parker Solar Probe approaching the sun. Steve Gribben/Johns Hopkins APL/NASA via AP

NASA announced it contacted the Parker Solar Probe on Dec. 27 and confirmed the spacecraft was “safe” and operating normally after making its record-setting approach to the sun on Christmas Eve.

“Parker Solar Probe has phoned home,” NASA wrote on X. “After passing just 3.8 million miles from the solar surface on Dec. 24—the closest solar flyby in history—we have received Parker Solar Probe’s beacon tone confirming the spacecraft is safe.”

The probe again entered the sun’s outer atmosphere, or corona, after first doing so in December 2021.

This was the closest approach to the sun by any human-made object as scientists look to learn more about the star at the center of our solar system.

“This close-up study of the Sun allows Parker Solar Probe to take measurements that help scientists better understand how material in this region gets heated to millions of degrees, trace the origin of the solar wind [a continuous flow of material escaping the sun], and discover how energetic particles are accelerated to near light speed,” the agency said in its statement.

The flyby was made on Dec. 24, during which, according to NASA’s website, it became the fastest spacecraft ever built, reaching speeds of 430,000 mph.

It also endured temperatures up to 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit, which was still well below its heatshield’s 2,500-degree threshold.

The first signal was received by the probe’s operations team at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland in the waning hours of Dec. 26.

Detailed telemetry data on the probe’s status is expected to be received by Jan. 1, 2025.

The probe is now expected to remain at this distance for several months.

Launched in 2018, it has been gradually moving closer to the sun, using flybys of Venus to slingshot itself nearer.

The Parker Solar Probe’s development was part of NASA’s Living With a Star program, which the agency said was tasked to “explore aspects of the Sun-Earth system that directly affect life and society.”

It was named after the late Eugene Parker, who passed away at the age of 94 on March 15, 2022, but lived long enough to become the first person to witness the launch of a spacecraft named after him.

“[Parker] pioneered our modern understanding of the Sun,” NASA said on its website.

“As a young professor at the University of Chicago in the mid-1950s, Parker developed a mathematical theory that predicted the solar wind, the constant outflow of solar material from the Sun.

“Throughout his career, Parker revolutionized the field time and again, advancing ideas that addressed the fundamental questions about the workings of our Sun and stars throughout the universe.”