NASA’s Parker Solar Probe ‘safe’ after record-breaking brush with scorching surface, ‘phones home’ after several days

The Parker Solar Probe survived a close brush with the scorching surface of the Sun this week. NASA announced on Friday that the explorer was “safe” and functioning normally after passing within a record-breaking 6 million kilometers of the star. It is expected to circle the sun at this distance through at least September — the closest approach to the Sun ever achieved by a human-made object.

“Parker Solar Probe has phoned home! After passing just 3.8 million miles from the solar surface on December. 24 — the closest solar flyby in history — we have received Parker Solar Probe’s beacon tone confirming the spacecraft is safe,” read an update on X from the NASA Sun and Moon handle.

The mission operations team in Maryland had been out of contact with the spacecraft during its closest-ever approach on Christmas eve. The spacecraft eventually transmitted a beacon tone back to Earth just before midnight (EST) on December 26 — indicating it’s in good health and operating normally. The probe is expected to send detailed telemetry data about its status on January 1.

The Parker Solar Probe was launched in 2018 to get a close-up look at the sun. It is the fastest spacecraft built by humans and has since since flown straight through the crownlike outer atmosphere of the blazing star. The probe is outfitted with a heat shield that can withstand scorching temperatures up to 1370°C.

The solar probe has gradually circled closer to the sun over the past six years — flying past Venus in order to use the planet’s gravity to move it into a tighter orbit.

Scientists hope the data from Parker will help them better understand why the sun's outer atmosphere is hundreds of times hotter than its surface and what drives the solar wind — the supersonic stream of charged particles constantly blasting away from the sun. The probe had made unexpected discoveries about the boundary of the corona when it first passed into the sun’s atmosphere in 2021.

(With inputs from agencies)