The Parker probe approached the Sun at a minimum distance at a record speed
The research probe Parker Solar Probe, launched into space by NASA back in 2018, completed the tenth approach to the Sun in a row, while updating two records at once.
Firstly, the space probe approached the Sun at a minimum distance, and, secondly, all this happened at a maximum speed of 586,864 km / h (this is an absolute record for man-made objects launched into space). At this speed, the flight from Earth to the Moon will take a little less than one hour.
Probe "Parker", its tasks and new records
The Parker spacecraft has approached our Sun at a distance of only 8.5 million kilometers. And soon it will begin to move away from the Sun, but the device will only communicate with the Earth when it leaves the zone of strong radio interference, and this will be realized no earlier than December 23, 2021.
It was then that scientists will begin to receive the most valuable data collected on the structure of the incipient solar wind, as well as on the structure of the dusty environment in the circumsolar zone.
In total, the Parker's flight program envisages 24 rendezvous with the Sun (10 such rendezvous have already been completed) and with each new turn, the speed of "Parker" will only increase, and the distance from the conditional surface of the Sun will be shrink.
In this case, the device will also fly past Venus, which will allow scientists to obtain important data on this planet.
The apogee of the entire mission "Parker" will be the fall of the apparatus on the surface of the Sun in 2024, which means there is more than enough time to collect the most valuable data.
But each such approach carries an increasing threat to the integrity of the apparatus, and the point here is not at all in the heating from extreme proximity with the Sun.
It turns out that the main danger comes from accelerating. After all, the microparticles encountered on the path of the probe, colliding with the apparatus at such a high speed, vaporize, forming a region of plasma that vaporizes part of the apparatus's body, thus destroying his.
Engineers hope that the body of the device will withstand, and the mission of the "Parker" probe will be completed precisely on the surface of the Sun.
Well, we will wait for a portion of unique data from the probe, its new records and the successful completion of the mission.
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