393,044 km / h. At this speed, a Bern – New York flight would last approximately 1 minute. That’s the speed at which NASA’s Parker Solar Probe probe approached the Sun on January 29. It thus becomes the fastest man-made artificial object, explains Futura Sciences.
At the same time, the solar probe broke the record for the shortest distance from the Sun, pointing to only 18.7 million km. A figure that may seem high but represents only less than half the distance from Mercury to the Sun, notes the magazine Clubic.
It is the 4th orbit around the Sun completed by this probe which is the size of a car. Another 26 attempts are planned until 2025, including one next in June. Ultimately, it could even approach nearly 6 million km.
NASA launched Parker in August 2018 to closely study the Sun’s crown, that is, the outer part of its atmosphere. In particular, it will try to unlock the secret of solar storms.
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