Images from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory highlight the appearance of the Sun at solar minimum (left, Dec. 2019) versus solar maximum (right, May 2024). These images are in the 171 wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light, which reveals the active regions on the Sun that are more common during solar maximum. (Video: NASA/SDO)
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe is set to make its final flyby of Venus on Wednesday, setting up the spacecraft to become the closest human-made object to the Sun on Christmas Eve this year.
Launched in 2018, the Parker Solar Probe has been slowly closing the distance to the Sun and will reach within 3.8 million miles of our star on Dec. 24.
On Wednesday, the spacecraft began its final stage of that historical approach, coming within 233 miles of Venus. Using the planet’s gravity assist, the spacecraft will be set up for its final orbital configuration around the Sun. The mission has used its two previous flybys in 2020 and 2021 to gather data on Venus with the spacecraft’s Wide-Field Imager for Parker Solar Probe, or WISPR.
NASA said scientists expected to be able to track changes in the Venetian cloud cover but were surprised to find that during the 2020 flyby, WISPR was able to see through the thick clouds down to the planet’s surface.
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of an X9.0 solar flare – as seen in the bright flash in the center – on Oct. 03, 2024. The image shows a blend of 171 Angstrom, and 131 Angstrom light, subsets of extreme ultraviolet light.
(NASA/SDO)
After Wednesday’s Venus flyby, the Parker Solar Probe will begin the final leg of its mission, getting closer to the Sun than any other human-made object has been before.
Parker continues breaking its own record. Just 78 days after lift-off in 2018, the spacecraft set the new record for the closest approach to the Sun by a human-made object at 26.55 million miles. The spacecraft will blow that record out of the water, coming nearly seven times closer.
ULA’s Delta IV Heavy rocket launches from Cape Canaveral, Florida sending NASA’s Parker Solar Probe into space on Aug. 12, 2018.
(ULA)
“This is a major engineering accomplishment,” said NASA Parker Solar Probe project scientist Adam Szabo.
The timing of this close approach is perfect because the Sun recently reached solar maximum in Solar Cycle 25 and continues to be very active with solar flares from active sunspot regions.
To study the Sun like no other spacecraft before, the Parker Solar Probe is a 4.5-inch-thick carbon-composite shield built to withstand 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit.
During its closest approach on Christmas Eve this year, the spacecraft will dive through plumes of plasma still attached to the Sun. According to NASA, this is close enough to pass inside a solar eruption, similar to a surfer duck-diving under an ocean wave.