Parker Solar Probe: Humanity’s Closest Encounter with the Sun

  • Released Friday, December 27, 2024
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Controllers have confirmed NASA’s mission to “touch” the Sun survived its record-breaking closest approach to the solar surface on Dec. 24, 2024.

Breaking its previous record by flying just 3.8 million miles above the surface of the Sun, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe hurtled through the solar atmosphere at a blazing 430,000 miles per hour — faster than any human-made object has ever moved. A beacon tone received in the late evening hours of Dec. 26 confirmed the spacecraft had made it through the encounter safely and is operating normally.

This pass, the first of more to come at this distance, allows the spacecraft to conduct unrivaled scientific measurements with the potential to change our understanding of the Sun.

Watch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.

Music credits: “Altitude” by Thomas Daniel Bellingham [PRS]; “Our Velocity Vibrant” by Jeremy Noel William Abbott [PRS]; “Omega Centauri” by Timothy James Cornick [PRS]; “Earthrise” by Alasdair Neil Parkinson [ASCA]; “The Big Revelation” by Richard James Neale [PRS], Jason Glover [PRS]; “Snuggling You” by Daniel Backes [GEMA], Peter Moslener [GEMA] from Universal Production Music.

Conceptual Animation

A conceptual animation of Parker Solar Probe making its closest approach to the Sun.

Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben

Produced Video

A message from NASA's Associate Administrator Nicola Fox for Parker Solar Probe's closest approach to the Sun on December 24, 2024 at 6:53 a.m. ET.

Music credits: “Our Velocity Vibrant” by Jeremy Noel William Abbott [PRS] from Universal Production Music.

B-roll footage of the Mission Operation Control on December 26, 2024, confirming NASA’s Parker Solar Probe survived its record-breaking closest approach to the solar surface on Dec. 24, 2024.

Credit: NASA/JHUAPL

Interview with Andrew Driesman, Civil Space Flight Mission Area Executive, Johns Hopkins APL

Credit: NASA/JHUAPL

Interview with Nicky Fox, Associate Administrator, Science Mission Directorate, NASA

Credit: NASA/JHUAPL

Interview with Nick Pinkine, Parker Solar Probe Mission Operations Manager, Johns Hopkins APL

Credit: NASA/JHUAPL

Interview with Nour Rawafi, Parker Solar Probe Project Scientist, Johns Hopkins APL

Credit: NASA/JHUAPL

Interview with Ralph Semmel, Director, Johns Hopkins APL

Credit: NASA/JHUAPL

Interview with Joe Westlake, Heliophysics Division Director, NASA

Credit: NASA/JHUAPL

Interview with Helene Winters, Parker Solar Probe Project Manager, Johns Hopkins APL

Credit: NASA/JHUAPL

Image from the Mission Operation Control center at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland on December 26, 2024.Credit: NASA/JHUAPL

Image from the Mission Operation Control center at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland on December 26, 2024.

Credit: NASA/JHUAPL

Image from the Mission Operation Control center at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland on December 26, 2024.Credit: NASA/JHUAPL

Image from the Mission Operation Control center at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland on December 26, 2024.

Credit: NASA/JHUAPL

Image from the Mission Operation Control center at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland on December 26, 2024.Credit: NASA/JHUAPL

Image from the Mission Operation Control center at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland on December 26, 2024.

Credit: NASA/JHUAPL

Image from the Mission Operation Control center at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland on December 26, 2024.Credit: NASA/JHUAPL

Image from the Mission Operation Control center at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland on December 26, 2024.

Credit: NASA/JHUAPL

Image from the Mission Operation Control center at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland on December 26, 2024.Credit: NASA/JHUAPL

Image from the Mission Operation Control center at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland on December 26, 2024.

Credit: NASA/JHUAPL

Image from the Mission Operation Control center at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland on December 26, 2024.Credit: NASA/JHUAPL

Image from the Mission Operation Control center at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland on December 26, 2024.

Credit: NASA/JHUAPL

For More Information

See https://science.nasa.gov/science-research/heliophysics/nasas-parker-solar-probe-makes-history-with-closest-pass-to-sun/

Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

This page was originally published on Friday, December 27, 2024.
This page was last updated on Friday, December 27, 2024 at 1:59 PM EST.

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