NASA Solar Parker Probe Quickly Passes Through 9th Solar Flyby to Study Solar Winds, Sun's Surface

The Parker Solar Probe flew by the sun for the ninth time on Monday at 3:10 p.m. EDT. When it was around 10.4 million kilometers (6.5 million miles) from the sun's exterior, the probe was flying at over 532,000 kilometers per hour (330,000 miles per hour) at the time, as per Space report.

The mission's goal is to figure out how the sun's atmosphere gets extremely hotter than the sun's surface and the solar wind's origin, a continual torrent of particles that sweeps throughout the solar system.

Parker Solar Probe About To Enter Into the Key Phase

Parker Solar Probe will be in a better-positioned area to solve these puzzles as it gets near the sun. In a NASA release, Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory's Parker Solar Probe scientist Nour E. Raouafi said that they are entering into the key stage of the Parker mission. Raouafi said that they are now involved in several things during this time.

The spacecraft should pass through the area of the solar wind's continuous flow of charged particles, according to Raouafi. Solar activity is increasing, which bodes well for research into coronal mass ejections.

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During Monday's flyby, the spacecraft equaled its previous marks for the nearest approach to the sun and the fastest-moving object of a spaceship, both of which are also human records. Parker Solar Probe will shortly resume its streak of smashing both records.

Parker Solar Probe Going Strong on Its 7-Year Mission

SpaceRef said Parker Solar Probe is still going strong on its seven-year first mission, traveling towards the direction of the sun's outer atmosphere called the corona. The spacecraft's Thermal Protection System is already battling temperatures above 650 degrees Celsius (1,200 degrees Fahrenheit). The TPS must survive 1,371 degrees Celsius (2,500 degrees Fahrenheit) during Parker Solar Probe's near approaches while keeping the spacecraft and sensors in its shadow at roughly 85 degrees Fahrenheit.

Science Times said that the project will fly through Venus for the sixth time in October, adjusting its route through space to go even closer to the sun by exploiting the planet's gravity. After this year's maneuver, the spacecraft will make two more Venus flybys before ending the current mission, which is scheduled for 2025. By that time, the spacecraft will have traveled barely 3.8 million miles (6.1 million kilometers) from the sun's surface.

Although the Parker Solar Probe team expected something for today's findings, it is still possible that the scientists will discover yet another solar surprise.