NASA is gearing up to “taste” the sun on Christmas Eve.

The agency’s Parker Solar Probe is just days away from its closest-ever approach to the sun, scheduled for Tuesday. This will mark the first time a human-made object gets closer to our star than any other spacecraft in history. The probe, roughly the size of a small car, will dive within 3.86 million miles of the sun’s surface at 6:40 a.m. ET on Tuesday, traveling at an astonishing speed of about 430,000 mph, according to NASA.

“If you can imagine, it’s like going 96% of the way there to the sun’s surface,” stated Kelly Korreck, a program scientist in NASA’s heliophysics division.

During this maneuver, mission controllers will not be able to communicate with the probe. Therefore, NASA will have to wait approximately three days to receive confirmation that the spacecraft successfully navigated its encounter with the sun. Following this, the first images from this close approach are expected to be transmitted back to Earth sometime in January.

As the Parker Solar Probe approaches the sun, it is anticipated that it will fly through plumes of solar plasma and may even enter active regions of the star, according to Korreck.

The mission aims to investigate the outermost layer of the sun’s atmosphere, known as the corona, which is an extremely hot region. Scientists are eager to study the corona closely because they have long been puzzled by why this outer layer is hundreds of times hotter than the sun's surface. Studying the corona will also enable researchers to understand how solar storms that form on the sun’s surface erupt into space. The probe will be able to observe streams of high-energy solar particles as they are expelled from the sun at supersonic speeds.

“This is the birthplace of space weather,” Korreck explained. “We’ve observed space weather from afar, but now Parker is living through it. Now we’ll be able to understand better how space weather forms, and when we see storms on the sun in our telescopes, we’ll be able to say what that means for us here on Earth.”

During intense space weather events, the sun can emit massive solar flares and streams of charged particles known as solar wind directly toward Earth. These outbursts can interact with our planet's magnetic field, potentially damaging satellites and disrupting power grids while also enhancing the northern lights. Korreck emphasized that the Parker Solar Probe mission will aid researchers in better predicting space weather and its potential impacts, similar to how meteorologists forecast weather on Earth.

Launched in 2018, the Parker Solar Probe has orbited the sun more than 20 times since then. The Christmas Eve flyby will be one of three final close approaches planned for this mission. The spacecraft is named after Eugene Parker, a groundbreaking astrophysicist from the University of Chicago who first proposed the existence of solar wind. Parker passed away in 2022 at the age of 94. 

Last month, the probe conducted a flyby of Venus in a maneuver designed to help propel it closer to the sun. This upcoming close approach was strategically timed to coincide with a highly active phase in the sun's 11-year activity cycle known as solar maximum, which is characterized by numerous solar storms and heightened magnetic activity. Scientists like Korreck are hopeful that the Parker Solar Probe will be in prime position to observe any storms occurring on the surface of the sun this Christmas Eve.

Citations:

Chow, Denise. “NASA's solar probe is about to fly closer to the sun than any human-made object ever.” NBC News, 21 December 2024, https://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/nasa-parker-solar-probe-fly-close-sun-rcna184500. Accessed 21 December 2024.