The object made by man that has come closest to the sun

One of the most impressive achievements of space exploration, last Tuesday, December 24, an armored spacecraft became the man-made object that has come closest to the sun, NASA's Parker Probe reached a distance of only 6.1 billions of kilometers from the solar surface.

The highly armored, compact car-sized craft became the closest man-made object to the sun in history, this event also marks humanity's closest approach to a star and sets a new speed record. for a man-made object and what NASA calls a hyper-approach regime.

One of the Parker Zone's primary missions is to traverse plumes of plasma still connected to the sun and get close enough to pass through the inside of a solar flare, something NASA likens to a surfer diving under an ocean wave, according to NASA. agency the heat faced by Parker at its closest point to the Sun was almost 500 times hotter than the hottest summer day we can experience on Earth.

To withstand temperatures of up to 1300 degrees Celsius, Parker is equipped with an advanced 2.4 m diameter and 11.4 cm thick heat shield, this shield is what allows the Probe's delicate internal instruments to collect data without being damaged by scorching heat, this latest flyby is especially significant because the sun is at the peak of its 11-year activity cycle, this means our star is more active, emitting intense solar winds and producing solar storms that can directly impact life on Earth, from interruptions in communication systems to failures in electrical networks.

Recognized as the fastest object ever built on Earth, Parke has once again broken its own speed and proximity records by reaching its closest point to the Sun, traveling at a speed of 690,000 km/h, according to the mission site this speed It will be enough to go from Philadelphia to Washington DC in just one second.

Scientists hope that the data collected by Parker will help unlock the secrets of the solar wind, that constant stream of charged particles emitted by the sun. This wind plays a crucial role in the formation of auroras and in the interactions of space weather with our planet. planet, the mission could also reveal more about how the sun influences other bodies in the solar system, including the formation of planetary atmospheres.

The mission operators at the John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel Maryland lost contact with the probe for 3 days and recovered it again on December 27, 2024, it was a complete success; Parker will complete two more hyperbolic approaches at the same distance on March 22 and June 19, 2025.