NASA’s groundbreaking Parker Solar Probe is about to achieve a historic milestone on Christmas Eve, when it makes its closest approach to the Sun at a record-breaking distance of 3.8 million miles (6.2 million kilometers). This unprecedented perihelion will occur on Tuesday, December 24, at 6:53 am Eastern Time (11:53 GMT), as part of the spacecraft’s seven-year mission to explore and better understand the Sun.
Launched in August 2018, Parker Solar Probe is collecting critical data to improve our understanding of the Sun and its effects on space weather. To put its proximity in perspective, if the Sun-Earth distance were scaled to the size of an American football field, Parker would be just four yards (3.65 meters) from the end zone. “We’re eager to receive the first status update and begin analyzing the science data from the spacecraft soon,” said Arik Posner, program scientist for the mission.
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During this close approach, direct communication with Parker will temporarily be lost, but a “beacon tone” will confirm its status. The spacecraft’s heat shield will withstand extreme temperatures, while its internal instruments will remain at a stable 85°F (29°C). Traveling at an astonishing speed of 430,000 mph (690,000 km/h), Parker will explore the Sun’s outer atmosphere, the corona, marking the first time a man-made object will pass this close to the Sun.
So far, Parker Solar Probe has already made significant contributions to understanding solar phenomena, such as the origins of solar wind, the unusually high temperature of the corona, and the formation of coronal mass ejections. This flyby is the first of three record-breaking close encounters, with additional approaches planned for March 2025 and June 2025.
