On its 17th probe around the sun, NASA's Parker Solar Probe traveled at 394,736 miles per hour — making the probe the fastest human-made object in history.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Good morning. I'm Michel Martin. A NASA space probe that's used to observe the sun has set a speed record. On its 17th trip around the sun, NASA's Parker Solar Probe traveled at nearly 400,000 miles per hour. That makes the probe the fastest human-made object in history. The probe is also on pace to fly more than seven times closer to the sun than any previous spacecraft. I guess you could say Parker is just too hot to handle. It's MORNING EDITION.
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On its 17th trip around the sun, NASA's Parker Solar Probe
Parker Solar Probe
Spacecraft. The Parker Solar Probe is the first spacecraft to fly into the low solar corona. It will assess the structure and dynamics of the Sun's coronal plasma and magnetic field, the energy flow that heats the solar corona and impels the solar wind, and the mechanisms that accelerate energetic particles.
https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Parker_Solar_Probe
traveled at nearly 400,000 miles per hour. That makes the probe the fastest human-made object in history. The probe is also on pace to fly more than seven times closer to the sun than any previous spacecraft.
NASA has announced that its Parker Solar Probe traveled at a speed of 394,736 miles per hour (635,266 kilometers per hour) around the sun. This record-breaking achievement was recorded during the probe's 17th orbit around the sun, which was completed on September 27, 2023.
Parker Solar Probe will travel through the sun's atmosphere, closer to the surface than any spacecraft before it, facing brutal heat and radiation conditions — and ultimately providing humanity with the closest-ever observations of a star.
The NASA Parker Solar Probe has become the fastest human-made object ever recorded — again. On Sept. 27, the probe reached a blistering 394,736 mph/ (635,266 km/h) as it swooped close to the sun's surface, thanks to a little gravity assistance from a close flyby of Venus on Aug.
On its 17th probe around the sun, NASA's Parker Solar Probe traveled at 394,736 miles per hour — making the probe the fastest human-made object in history.
It's more honest to say that the fastest 'physical' thing in the Universe is light itself (or in fact the entire electromagnetic spectrum). Of course, the Universe has a self-imposed speed limit – the speed of light, which is 299,792.458km/s. Nothing moves faster than this.
On Dec.14, 2021, NASA announced that Parker had flown through the Sun's upper atmosphere – the corona – the first time in history that a spacecraft had touched the Sun. Other active spacecraft monitoring the Sun include: Solar Orbiter, SOHO, ACE, IRIS, WIND, Hinode, the Solar Dynamics Observatory, and STEREO.
On average, we're moving away from the sun - but the rate is negligible. Is it true that each year the Earth is getting closer to the Sun? No. The Earth is receding from the Sun an average of 15 cm per year.
Lucy's first trip out to Jupiter will carry it through the leading swarm of Trojan asteroids collectively known as the Greek camp. The spacecraft will fly past Eurybates and its moon Queta in August 2027, Polymele and its moon in September 2027, Leucus in April 2028, and Orus in November 2028.
The fastest speed by a spacecraft is 163 km/s (586,800 km/h; 364,660 mph), which was achieved by the Parker Solar Probe at 21:25:24 UTC on 20 November 2021.
While numerous countries have launched missions to study the Sun, none has been able to reach its surface (unlike the Moon). The primary obstacle preventing such a landing is the extreme temperature on the Sun.
The current space speed record holder for fastest human-made object is NASA's uncrewed Parker Solar Probe. On 21 September 2023 – assisted by several fly-bys of Venus that allowed it to slingshot off the planet's gravity – Parker Solar Probe clocked up a speed of 635,266km/h (394,736mph).
The Parker Probe is almost eleven times faster than Voyager One. What is the possibility of surpassing the Voyager One probe when directing it to exit the Solar System? The Parker Solar Probe orbits the Sun in ellipses whose perihelions get closer as it repeatedly does gravity braking at Venus.
Light travels about 186,000 miles per second. The Parker Solar Probe travels 430,000 miles per hour. It travels one sixtieth of that in a minute, or 7,167 miles per minute. And it travels one sixtieth of that per second, or 119.4 miles per second.
NASA estimates that by slingshotting a small satellite around the Sun at a distance of around two to five solar radii (1.4 million - 3.5 million kilometres), speeds over 108,000km/h could be achieved – about double what Voyager 1 is moving at.
The distance to Proxima Centauri is then 4.2 x 9.46 trillion km, or about 39.73 trillion km. If we travel as fast as the Parker Solar probe, it would take (39.73 trillion km)/(586,800 km/h) = 67.7 million hours, or about 7700 years, to get to Proxima Centauri.
Introduction: My name is Dan Stracke, I am a homely, gleaming, glamorous, inquisitive, homely, gorgeous, light person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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