Parker Solar Probe to make closest approach yet to the sun
NASA's Parker Solar Probe will come withing 6.1 million kilometers of the sun, closer than any other spacecraft. Credit: ASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve GribbenWASHINGTON — A NASA spacecraft is performing better than expected as it makes its closest approach to the sun this week.
Parker Solar Probe will pass 6.1 million kilometers from the sun at 6:53 a.m. Eastern Dec. 24, the closest approach to the sun by this or any other spacecraft. At the time of closest approach, the spacecraft will be traveling 191 kilometers per second.
The spacecraft launched in 2018 and used a series of gravity-assist flybys of Venus to lower its perihelion. The final Venus flyby, on Nov. 6, set up the spacecraft for this perihelion, the closest the spacecraft will fly to the sun on its mission.
“On Christmas Eve of this year, Parker...
