“NASA’s Parker Solar Probe completed the closest-ever approach to the Sun by a human-made spacecraft, coming within 3.8 million miles of the solar surface,” reports Axios. The closest planet to the Sun, Mercury, is more than ten times further away from the Sun — it is currently over 40 million miles away from the Sun — but even that distance results in it reaching burning hot temperatures. NASA’s spacecraft is 96% closer to the Sun than the Earth. NASA scientists received a signal from the spacecraft on December 26 after several days of silence while it approached the sun to observe it up close:
The data collected during the historic approach will help scientists better understand the Sun. The undertaking is a remarkable feat of science and engineering, given the extreme heat (up to 1,800 F) and radiation the probe endured as it passed through the Sun’s outer atmosphere….The probe was moving about 430,000 mph….The data will help scientists understand how material in that region gets heated to millions of degrees, trace the origin of solar wind, and discover how energetic particles are accelerated to near light speed.
Last year, an Indian mission to the sun gathered information about the sun’s outer layers, using an array of instruments to measure and collect images of those layers of the sun.
Last year, a Chinese space probe to the far side of the moon returned to Earth with rare moon rocks from the far side.
In 2023, India became the fourth country to achieve a soft landing on the moon. Japan later became the fifth country to do a soft landing on the moon, landing more precisely than any other country.
