Nasa craft set for daring 1,300C Christmas Eve descent to Sun in ‘closest approach’ ever to solve baffling space mystery
Share:
A NASA spacecraft is getting ready for a record-setting "closest-ever flight" to the Sun on Christmas Eve. The Parker Solar Probe launched back in 2018 to examine our local star – and will give scientists a very special Christmas gift this year. It's set to fly just 3.8 million miles from the surface of the Sun.
![[Nasa's Parker Solar Probe is preparing to make its closest approach to the Sun]](https://www.the-sun.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2024/07/spacecraft-travel-directly-sun-s-916613792.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
That might sound like a lot, but it's a stone's throw given that the Sun is 91.4 million miles from Earth. Nasa's probe is due to hit its closest approach to the Sun on Tuesday, December 24 at 11.53am in London or 6.53am in New York. Sadly we won't hear back from the probe immediately as it'll be out of communications range.
![[The probe will reach as close as 3.8 million miles from the Sun's surface – protected by a 160lb heat shield]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/NINTCHDBPICT000447160585.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
But Nasa says we should get data back from the probe "in the coming weeks". The probe was operating normally when Nasa received its most recent transmission on December 20. But we should hear a "beacon tone" on Friday, December 27 that confirms whether the probe survived its trip.
![[The Parker Solar Probe pre-launch in 2018, seen with the NASA and Parker Solar Probe emblems]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/2018-launch-complex-37-cape-869558063.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
"This is one example of NASA’s bold missions, doing something that no one else has ever done before to answer longstanding questions about our universe," said Arik Posner, a scientist on the Parker Solar Probe program at Nasa. "We can’t wait to receive that first status update from the spacecraft and start receiving the science data in the coming weeks.".
Nasa is tracking the beacon transmissions through its Deep Space network complex in Canberra, Australia. Over the next few weeks, the probe will be able to send its data across tens of millions of miles of space. It will reach seven times closer to the Sun than any other spacecraft to date.
![[The probe will get closer and faster over the course of its mission, officially ending in 2025]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/parker02.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
