BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Brad Klein reviews upcoming astronomical highlights with Bethlehem’s "Backyard Astronomy Guy," Marty McGuire.
This week, an update on the travels of NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, which makes its closest approach to the sun on Christmas Eve.
Launched over six years ago from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, the Parker Solar Probe is a robotic mission to the interior of our solar system. According to NASA, it is humanity's first-ever mission into the part of the sun’s atmosphere known as the corona. There, the agency says, “It will directly explore solar processes that are key to understanding and forecasting space weather events that can impact life on Earth.”
On Dec. 24, the craft will make its closest approach yet to the star at the center of our own planetary system.
“This is way inside the orbit of Mercury, the closest planet to the sun,” according to McGuire. “It's coming within 4 million miles, which may sound like a lot, but is 1/10 of the distance between the sun and Mercury.”
And thanks to the force of the sun’s gravity, Parker is said to be the fastest spacecraft ever. McGuire says it’s approaching speeds of 430,000 miles per hour as it races toward the sun.