NASA’s Parker Photo voltaic Probe accomplished its Twentieth shut strategy to the sun on June 30, 2024, matching its personal distance report by coming about 4.51 million miles (7.26 million kilometers) from the solar floor.
The close approach (generally known as perihelion) occurred at 3:47 UTC (11:47 p.m. EDT on June 29), with Parker Photo voltaic Probe transferring 394,736 miles per hour (635,266 kilometers per hour) across the sun, once more matching its personal report.
On July 2, the spacecraft checked in with mission operators on the Johns Hopkins Utilized Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland (the place the spacecraft was additionally designed and constructed), with a beacon tone indicating it was in good health and all methods have been working usually.
The milestone additionally marked the midpoint within the mission’s Twentieth solar encounter, which started June 25 and continues by way of July 5.
Parker will fly across the sun on the identical distance and velocity yet one more time this yr—on Sept. 30—earlier than making the primary of its three closing deliberate closest approaches on Dec. 24. At that time, with Parker’s orbit formed by the mission’s closing Venus gravity assist-flyby on Nov. 6, the spacecraft will zoom simply 3.8 million miles from the solar floor, transferring about 430,000 miles per hour.
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NASA’s Parker Photo voltaic Probe completes Twentieth shut strategy to the sun (2024, July 5)
retrieved 5 July 2024
from https://phys.org/information/2024-07-nasa-parker-solar-probe-Twentieth.html
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