NASA’s Parker Solar Probe is scheduled to pass in front of the sun this year in a historic moment for space exploration.
NASA said: “The probe, which was launched on August 12, 2018, is scheduled to fly close to the sun at a speed of 195 kilometers per second, or 435 thousand miles per hour, on December 24, 2024.”
NASA describes the mission on its website as a “touch the sun” mission, with the aim of obtaining “the first ever sample of the star’s atmosphere.”
“We are about to land on the star,” Nour Rawafi, a scientist involved in the project, told British media.
She added: “This will be a huge achievement for all of humanity. This is equivalent to landing on the moon in 1969.”
NASA says that the mission aims to help us obtain a deeper understanding of the sun, as the probe orbits closer to the surface of the sun than ever before and within the orbit of Mercury.
The probe is collecting measurements and images to help scientists learn more about where the solar wind comes from and how it develops.
It also makes “critical contributions to predicting changes in the space environment that affect life and technology on Earth.”
The probe will encounter intense heat and radiation during its journey, and will fly “more than seven times closer to the sun than any spacecraft.”
Dr. Nikki Fox, NASA’s chief science officer, said they “don’t know” what they will find on the mission, “but we will be looking for waves in the solar wind associated with heating.”
“I think we will sense a lot of different types of waves that may indicate a combination of processes that people have been arguing about for years,” she added.
