NASA's Parker probe approaches the Sun at a distance of less than 9.6 million kilometres

NASA's Parker Solar Probe made another approach to the Sun last week. The distance between the spacecraft and the star was reduced to less than 9.6 million km.

Here's What We Know

The Parker has allowed scientists to learn more about the nature of solar processes. The spacecraft recently succeeded in seeing how the solar wind is generated.

The probe is set to approach the Sun 24 times during its mission, which began five years ago. Launched in 2018, the spacecraft is successfully helping to collect data for space weather forecasting.

Last week, Parker came close to the star around which our planet orbits for the 16th time. The distance between them has shrunk to 9.6 million km. The temperature of the Sun's crust reaches 1 million degrees Celsius. Despite this, the probe's instruments work normally at around 30 degrees Celsius thanks to an 11.4-cm thick heat shield.

Source: space