NASA spacecraft to ‘touch’ the sun at staggering speed in 2024

Later this year, the daring ‘Parker Solar Probe‘ from NASA will touch the sun.

The upcoming close encounter will see the probe rapidly soar through the Sun’s upper atmosphere, known as the ‘Corona’.

Amazingly, this isn’t the first time a spacecraft has made contact with the Sun flying through its Corona.

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Back in December 2021, NASA made history when its probe collected essential data on charged particles and magnetic fields.

When man landed on the moon, scientists gained significant insights into its origin and geographical history.

‘Touching’ or carefully analyzing the components that make up the Sun is a crucial way to understand more about our host star – as well as its influence on the solar system.

According to the BBC, when the spacecraft travels through the exceptionally hostile atmosphere around our star late in 2024, it will do so at a staggering speed of 195 km/s or 435,000 mph.

The Sun’s powerful gravitational attraction will assist the probe in reaching this incredible high speed.

Apparently, the probe is scheduled to come within 3.9 million miles of the Sun’s surface during its flyby.

That’s even closer than the planet Mercury.

Speaking of which, NASA has announced a total solar eclipse is coming this year.

The probe, worth $1.5 billion, can endure the heat thanks to four-inch-thick carbon-composite shields.

Those massive heat shields protect the probe and its equipment during perihelion – the point in the probe’s orbit closest to the star.

Just as well, as at this juncture, temperatures on the front of the spacecraft may reach around 1,400°C.

Sounds like a risky mission, but one that’ll be worth it, as it’ll enable direct investigation of solar material, such as charged particles and magnetic fields.

Those insights will offer scientists previously unseen information about the Sun’s dynamics.

Meanwhile, NASA’s helicopter found ‘otherwordly’ wreckage on Mars’ surface.

The chopper, nicknamed Marscopter, was traveling over the Red Planet’s surface when it captured jaw-dropping images of wreckage, adding to the incredible recent images from NASA of Uranus.

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