Thread | Brutkey

Happy Birthday to the Parker Solar Probe (PSP), the fastest object ever built on Earth and the record holder for the closest approach to the Sun. PSP was launched OTD on Aug 12, 2018.

PSP became the first NASA spacecraft named after a living person, honoring physicist Eugene Newman Parker.

Next perihelion is on Sept. 10, 2025.

https://parkersolarprobe.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/Show-Article.php?articleID=176
https://parkersolarprobe.jhuapl.edu/

Check out these threads for more info on the PSP.
https://fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/113705015492853135
https://fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/114224523466715013
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1. Graphic showing PSP flying above the atmosphere of the Sun.

2. Eugene Parker watches the launch of the spacecraft that bears his name – NASA’s Parker Solar Probe – early in the morning of Aug. 12, 2018. NASA Director of Heliophysics Nicky Fox, who at the time was the Parker Solar Probe project scientist, stands behind him.
Credit: NASA/Glenn Benson

AkaSci 🛰

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@AkaSci@fosstodon.org

Here is a video from NASA, released a month ago, showing the closest ever images of the solar wind, the stream of electrically charged subatomic particles ejected by the Sun at speeds over 1.6 million km/h.

The images were taken by the Parker Solar Probe during perihelion in December 2024.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1dTwEyuD44
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