NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has sent home its first detailed update after breaking the record for closest-ever approach to the sun, with all systems and science instruments confirmed as “healthy and operating normally” following a historic flyby on December 24. The spacecraft successfully carried out programmed commands and collected valuable data about our star during its record-breaking journey.
On January 1, mission control at Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland began receiving telemetry data from the Parker Solar Probe, which confirmed that the spacecraft’s systems were functioning correctly after the flyby. The transmission also revealed that the science instruments had been operating during the encounter.
“It really is a remarkable spacecraft!” said Michael Buckley, a spokesperson for JHUAPL, overseeing the Parker Solar Probe mission. “All is looking good with the spacecraft systems and instrument operations.”
The telemetry data confirms that the Parker Solar Probe successfully collected data about our star as it approached within 3.8 million miles (6.1 million kilometers) of the sun’s surface – the closest yet a spacecraft has ever gotten to our star.
Scientists hope that this new data will help them decode longstanding mysteries about our sun, such as why its tenuous outer atmosphere, the corona, gets hundreds of times hotter the farther it stretches from the sun’s surface. “The data is so important for the science community because it gives us another vantage point,” said Kelly Korreck, a heliophysicist at NASA Headquarters who worked on one of the mission’s instruments.
A second flyby is scheduled for March 22, 2025, and the spacecraft will beam home its collected science data later this month when its most powerful onboard antenna will be in better alignment with Earth to transmit at higher rates.
Source: https://www.space.com/the-universe/sun/nasas-parker-solar-probe-beams-home-1st-detailed-update-after-record-breaking-approach-to-the-sun