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Parker Solar Probe

NASA•
nominal

Parker Solar Probe is the fastest human-made object ever built and the closest spacecraft to the Sun. It is designed to study the Sun's outer corona, solve the mystery of why the corona is hotter than the surface, and understand how the solar wind is accelerated.

Solar EncounterTarget: Sun
Live Telemetry—
Distance from Earth
0.9800AU
146.61M km
Distance from Sun
0.0460AU
6.88M km
Velocity
192.0km/s
691,200 km/h
Mission Duration
—
Signal Journey — Earth ↔ Probe
🛸
5 minutesone-way at speed of light
Key Achievements
✦Fastest human-made object in history
✦First spacecraft to fly through the Sun's corona
✦Discovered "switchbacks" in the solar wind
✦Traced the source of slow solar wind
✦First images of Venus's surface in visible light (through clouds)
✦Broke its own speed record multiple times
Science Instruments
FIELDS — Electric/magnetic field measurements
SWEAP — Solar wind particle analyzer
IS☉IS — Energetic particle detector
WISPR — Wide-field imager for corona
Mission Facts
Launch Vehicle
Delta IV Heavy
Launch Mass
685 kg
Closest Approach
6.16 million km from Sun
Peak Speed
~692,000 km/h
Heat Shield
11.4 cm carbon composite, 1,400°C
Total Orbits
24 planned
Other Probes
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