Photo: NASA / Getty Images
The Parker Solar Probe will once again approach the eastern Sun 21 November breaking his own speed record after taking a gravitational boost in Venus. So far, the Parker probe is the fastest ever built by humans.
This is the tenth approach of the Parker probe to the Sun, in total, is expected to perform 14 more close-ups over the next few years , each one closer to the star. This time it will be just over 8 million kilometers from the star and it will 587, 000 kilometers per hour this week.
The probe’s instruments are now ready to study the behavior of solar winds to a closer approximation, a phenomenon that experts know little about so far, but they will also evaluate any other discoveries they can make as the Parker probe approaches the Sun .
“ We are observing higher than expected amounts of dust near the Sun “, said Nour Raouafi, scientist of the Parker Solar Probe project at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in a official statement . However, he was also optimistic about the data the probe is currently collecting.
“The exciting thing about this is that it is improving enormously our understanding of the innermost regions of our heliosphere , giving us an idea of an environment that, until now, it was a total mystery “, added Roauafi.
The people in charge of the project from the Paker Solar Probe they knew what obstacles the probe might cross on its journey. That is why it is prepared to receive space dust at very high speeds .
With the gravitational help of Venus, scientists predict that the Parker probe will make two more turns in August 2023 and November 12880. The spacecraft is built to travel at increasing speed as it receives gravitational pull from Venus. It is estimated that the probe at some point reaches the 700, 000 kilometers per hour in one of his trips , defending the title of the fastest ship that mankind has built in all its history.
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