NASA’s Parker Solar Probe recently made a historically close encounter with the sun on Christmas Eve this year. Now, scientists are patiently waiting to receive a signal from the Probe, as it’s been silent since December 20th.
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe experienced a close flyby of the sun on Christmas Eve. Now, scientists are patiently waiting to see if the probe survived the close encounter, or potentially burned up in space.
According to reports, they won’t know for a few days, but they’re anticipating a “status beacon” to be received on Friday, December 27th. This beacon would let the team of scientists know that the spacecraft survived, which would be groundbreaking considering how close to the sun it actually got.
“Right now, Parker Solar Probe has achieved what we designed the mission for,” Nicola Fox, NASA’s associate administrator for science missions, said in a video.
“Right now, Parker Solar Probe is flying closer to a star than anything has ever been before and is the orbit that we really designed the mission for.”
Tariq Malik, the Editor-in-Chief of space.com, reported that the Parker Solar Probe flew within 3.8 million miles, or 6.1 million kilometers, of the solar surface. This historic trip marks the closest any human-made object has gotten to the sun.
During its travels, the Probe was moving at a rate of 430,000 miles-per-hour, which also makes it the fastest spacecraft ever, according to NASA.
The craft likely experienced temperatures up to 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit, or 980 degrees Celsius, during its journey. The entire flyby was completely automated. The last time scientists received any kind of signal from the Parker Solar Probe was Friday, December 20th.
The Probe sent a transmission that was “indicating all spacecraft systems were operating normally,” according to NASA officials. Officials are now expecting to receive an updated signal on Friday, December 27th. John Hopkins Applies Physics Laboratory is the site of the mission’s operations, and spokesperson Michael Buckley told reporters about their expected message from the Probe.
“We expect the first signal from Parker after closest approach (again, like Dec. 20, a beacon that indicates little more than general spacecraft health); signal expected around midnight.”
A more detailed update from the Parker Solar Probe is anticipated to be received on New Year’s Day. On January 1st the Probe is programmed to beam its first telemetry and housekeeping data to Earth since the flyby, according to Malik.
It’s only then that scientists will know if the spacecraft collected the expected observations of the sun from the flyby. This gives the team a better picture of overall spacecraft and subsystem/instrument health, including whether Parker’s data recorders are full,” Buckley said.
This Christmas Eve flyby was the “pinnacle of the spacecraft’s mission,” after it was initially launched in 2018. The launch’s mission was meant to study the sun in great detail, and “scientists hope the probe will help explain why the outer layers of the sun’s atmosphere, like its corona, are so much hotter than the surface of the star itself,” according to Malik.
“This is one example of NASA’s bold missions, doing something that no one else has ever done before to answer longstanding questions about our universe,” said Parker Solar Probe program scientist Arik Posner.
“We can’t wait to receive that first status update from the spacecraft and start receiving the science data in the coming weeks.”
“If all goes well, the Parker Solar Probe’s first science data from its Christmas Eve sun flyby should be transmitted to Earth in late January,” mission officials said.
Eric Mastrota is a Contributing Editor at The National Digest based in New York. A graduate of SUNY New Paltz, he reports on world news, culture, and lifestyle. You can reach him at eric.mastrota@thenationaldigest.com.
