NASA’s Parker Solar Probe already made history last year after becoming the fastest human made object ever, whipping around the Sun and reaching a speed of 394,736 miles per hour. Now it’s making history again, this time getting closer to our system’s central star than ever before.
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00:00NASA's Parker Solar Probe already made history last year after becoming the fastest human-made
00:09object ever, whipping around the Sun and reaching a speed of 394,736 miles per hour.
00:17Now it's making history again, this time getting closer to our system's central star than ever
00:22before.
00:23Just before midnight last Thursday, the probe sent a communication back to Mission Control.
00:27That's first in several days.
00:29After being so close to the Sun, interference prevented transmissions.
00:32The message?
00:33Well, it was safe and operating normally, and had just whizzed within 3.8 million miles
00:38of the Sun's surface.
00:40That might not sound that close, but that is within the Sun's outer atmosphere, meaning
00:44the Parker Solar Probe had to endure temperatures of more than 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit.
00:49With NASA's head of science, Dr. Nicola Fox, telling BBC,
00:53For centuries, people have studied the Sun, but you don't experience the atmosphere of
00:56a place until you actually go and visit it.
00:59This was the probe's 22nd pass of the star, with each subsequent one getting closer and
01:04faster as it is pulled in by the Sun's gravity.
01:07This time, it soon passed the solar surface at speeds of 420,000 miles per hour, meaning
01:12it also beat its previous speed record as well.