Wednesday, September 23, 2026

"After Latest Swing Past Sun, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Checks in"

The thing is moving quickly.

From NASA, September 10: 

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe completed its 29th close approach to the Sun on Sept. 4, again matching its record speed and distance from the solar surface. This time, the spacecraft trained its camera on structures and activity near the Sun’s north pole.

The spacecraft transmitted a beacon tone indicating that its systems were operating normally on Sept. 7. Flying around the Sun on a trajectory that limited communications with Earth, Parker had been out of contact and operating autonomously, as planned, for nine days centered around closest approach.

The flyby, which brought Parker to within 3.8 million miles of the Sun at a top speed of 430,000 miles per hour, allowed the spacecraft to race through and sample almost 40% of the solar circumference within one day during this encounter. During this solar encounter, which started Aug. 30 and ended Sept. 9, Parker’s four scientific instrument packages gathered data from inside the Sun’s atmosphere, or corona.

Parker will begin returning detailed spacecraft telemetry on Friday, Sept. 11, with science data transmission set to run from Sunday, Sept. 13 through Sunday, Sept. 27....

....MUCH MORE 

Here's NASA's Parker Solar Probe blog - https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/parker-solar-probe/ 

That 430,000 MPH (692,000 KPH) is the highest speed ever attained by something made by humans.