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The "Parker Solar Probe" probe came within 6.1 million kilometers of the surface of the sun at midday. However, this cannot be verified as the probe has not been in contact with the Earth for several days.

(Bild: AP)

According to calculations by the US space agency NASA, a space probe flew closer to the sun at Christmas than any man-made object before it. According to the report, the "Parker Solar Probe" came within 6.1 million kilometers of the surface of the sun at a record speed of 690,000 kilometers per hour. 

Data will not be available until the end of January, when the probe's main antenna points towards Earth, said astrophysicist Volker Bothmer from the University of Göttingen a few days before the flyby. "But it will take several years until we have analyzed and understood all the data." Bothmer is leading the German participation in the mission and, among other things, helped develop its concept and a wide-angle camera.

Temperatures of around 1000 degrees Celsius
According to NASA calculations, the probe, which was the size of a small car, had a speed of around 690,000 kilometers per hour at its closest point to the sun and was able to withstand temperatures of around 1000 degrees Celsius. It therefore flew faster than any other man-made object to date. To protect the instruments, it has an 11.4 centimeter-thick heat shield, which consists mainly of carbon. According to NASA, it is even designed to withstand temperatures of around 1400 degrees.

The "Parker Solar Probe" probe came within 6.1 million kilometers of the surface of the sun at midday. However, this cannot be verified as the probe has not been in contact with the Earth for several days.

(Bild: AP)

Among other things, researchers expect to gain insights into the formation of the solar wind, a stream of charged particles that the sun constantly emits, and into exactly how solar storms come about. These are hurled into space after eruptions on the sun.

(Bild: AFP )

First solar probes launched in the 1970s
The first solar probes were launched back in the 1970s. However, the German-American probes "Helios 1" and "Helios 2" kept a suitable distance of around 45 million kilometers from the heat ball.

"Parker Solar Probe" probe

Launched in August 2018, the approximately 700-kilogram "Parker Solar Probe" orbits the sun on highly elliptical orbits and therefore alternately passes close to and far from the sun. According to NASA, it had already come closer to the sun than any other spacecraft before during its first flyby in October 2018 at 42.7 million kilometers. In 2021, it was the first spacecraft to fly through the outermost layer of the sun's atmosphere, known as the corona. In 2023, it even came within just over 7 million kilometers of the surface of the sun.

Further approaches in the coming year
According to Bothmer, the proximity of around six million kilometers means an even deeper dive into the sun's corona. "This will provide us with data from areas of the sun's atmosphere that have never been seen before. At this proximity, we will be in the birth regions of the solar wind and solar storms."

For comparison: the Earth is on average around 150 million kilometers away from the sun, while the closest planet to the sun, Mercury, is around 58 million kilometers away