Parker Solar Probe Survives Closest Pass

Produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute’s Office of Public Outreach in collaboration with NASA’s Universe of Learning partners: Caltech/IPAC, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Video imagery:

·       Conceptual animation of Parker’s closest approach to the Sun: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben

·       Animation of Parker Solar Probe near Sun: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

·       Sun viewed with 304 ångstrom filter of Solar Dynamics Observatory: NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio

·       Animation of Parker orbit: NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio

Music from Music for Non-Profits

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Photos of colorful space phenomena nest together. Text: News from the Universe. Parker solar probesurvives closest pass. Animation. January 13, 2025. A small satellite flies through flames in the sky. It rotates slowly.

 

Text: Never has humanity's technology come so close to a star.

 

NASA's Parker Solar Probe flew through the solar atmosphere, just 3.8 million miles above the surface of the Sun, on December 24, 2024.

 

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Lines shoot from the Sun toward thee satellite.

 

With information direct from the source, scientists hope to learn more about the Sun's mysterious processes, including what powers the solar wind.

 

The satellite grows larger with a black sky behind. Rays of yellow light shoot past the satellite.

 

Solar wind, the flow of energetic material escaping the Sun, has a major impact on the solar system, including technology on Earth and astronauts in space.

 

Better understasnding our sun and its impact on our planetary system is also helpfulin understanding other, distant star systems.

 

The solar probe flies in a dark sky. Orbital paths are lit up. The probe moves toward Mercury, elongates, then stretches to the bottom left, crossing Mercury's orbit. Earth emerges at the bottom. The orbits intersect and flow. Venus comes close to the probe and Mercury.

 

This news was b rought to you in part by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.