NASA Parker Solar Probe: Is It the Fastest Object Ever Built To Get Near the Sun?

The world's fastest spacecraft has come dangerously close to touching the Sun. The Parker Solar Probe, launched in 2018, broke two records: it was the nearest spacecraft to the Sun and traveled faster ever.

On April 29, the probe came within a million kilometers of the Sun for the first time, passing just over 10 million kilometers from its surface. It was moving at around 150 kilometers per second relative to the Sun at the time of closest approach. New Scientist said it's the fastest any spacecraft has ever traveled.

It will take about 4.5 minutes to travel the entire circumference of the Earth at this speed, or about 40 minutes to travel from Earth to the moon. It is approximately 0.05% of the speed of light.

However, CNet said those records have since been surpassed. Parker Solar Probe is now at a speed of 330,000 mph (532,000 km/h). In addition, the spacecraft is now closest to the Sun -- located 6.5 million miles away (10.4 million kilometers).

The Parker Solar Probe, on the other hand, isn't finished yet: the flyby of the Sun on April 29 was only the spacecraft's eighth of a projected 24 passes before the mission ends in late 2025. The probe sails out past Venus on each pass to use the planet's gravity to form its orbit, bringing it closer and closer to the Sun.

Because of its close proximity, it will swing by at higher speeds, with a top speed of about 200 kilometers per second expected. As a result, it would be nearly three times faster than the previous record-holder, a pair of spacecraft known as the Helios probes, which studied the Sun in the 1970s.

Although the spacecraft is close to the Sun, its objectives are below the surface: the probe is designed to measure the region's magnetic fields and monitor the flow of energy inside the Sun.

These findings should aid researchers in understanding how the Sun produces the energetic particles that make up the solar wind and the mystery of why the Sun's outermost layers are hotter than its inner layers.

ALSO READ: NASA Will Send the Parker Probe Into the Sun's Corona

Where is NASA Parker Solar Probe Now?

SlashGear said Parker Solar Probe is currently swinging through space, using Venus' gravity to bring it closer to the Sun each time. It is moving closer and closer to the planet's surface in the process.

In reality, the Parker Solar Probe was only 517 miles from the surface of Venus on July 11, 2020. That brought it low enough to graze through Venus's atmosphere. It marked the first time since the Pioneer Venus Orbiter in 1992 that a spacecraft has been able to directly measure that area.

Parker should beat its own record later this year as it flybys to Venus as it slingshots closer to the Sun. Perihelion is predicted on November 21.

Some of the sun's great mysteries are already being revealed by the spacecraft. For example, Parker's first batch of data showed the (extremely bright) dynamics of charged particles and plasma in the sun's outer atmosphere.