NASA's solar probe saw its speed increase due to close encounters with Venus, during which it received a "gravity assist" from the sun.
Every now and then, mankind makes a new discovery or sets a new record in orbital space, revealing yet another mystery. The Parker Solar Probe of NASA has broken its own record for the fastest vehicle humans ever built.
The probe flew past the sun at a speed of more than 585,801 kilometres per hour (364,000 miles per hour) or roughly 101 miles per second. If it took off from New York at that speed, it would reach the 2,446 miles from New York to Los Angeles in just under 24 seconds, then cross the Atlantic and arrive in London in just over half a minute.
One of its main goals is to look into an unresolved mystery about the corona. The craft's principal research tasks on its most recent journey are to study the features of solar storms, which are streams of charged particles ejected from the sun's upper atmosphere, also known as the corona.
The Parker Solar Probe might resolve the riddle as to why our star's outer atmosphere is so much significantly warmer than its surface. According to existing belief, the further we delve into a star, the hotter it should get. The Parker Solar Probe approached the sun's surface at a distance of 5.3 million miles. This was the probe's tenth trip around the sun. The craft's increased speed is due to close encounters with Venus, during which it received a "gravity assist" from the sun.
The Parker Solar Probe will also look into why there is so much dirt near the sun. Dust is detected by the plasma produced when tiny particles hit the craft. Several detectors on the probe's FIELDS instrument, which is intended to assess the electric and magnetic fields close to the sun, sense the electrical impulses that come from this.
Throughout its record-breaking operation, it uses this to examine the features of dust in an area of the solar system that no craft has ever visited previously. The Parker Solar Probe's records may be beaten sometime in the near future. The spacecraft will perform two more space missions of Venus in August 2023 and November 2024 to increase its velocity. The Parker Solar Probe will pass the sun at a blazing 690,000 kilometres per hour (430,000 miles per hour) in December 2024, thanks to these speed upgrades. It will also pass closer to the sun than ever before, coming within 4 miles of our star.
“What's exciting about this is it's greatly improving our understanding of the innermost regions of our heliosphere, giving us insight into an environment that, until now, was a total mystery,” remarked Nour Raouafi, a project scientist in Parker Solar Probe at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), Laurel, Maryland.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
 "Fastest man-made vehicle zooms past sun at record-breaking 585,000 kilometres per hour")
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}