NASA solar probe to make its closest approach to Sun in April

Washington, Jan 30: After 161 days of launch, NASA's Parker Solar Probe has completed its first orbit of the Sun and has now begun the second of 24 planned orbits, which will mark its closest approach to the Sun in April, NASA said on Wednesday.

Launched on August 12 last year, the Parker Solar Probe will journey steadily closer to the Sun till it makes its closest approach at 3.8 million miles. Throughout its mission, the probe will make six more Venus gravity assists and 24 total passes by the Sun.

Parker Solar Probe entered full operational status on January 1, with all systems online and operating as designed. The spacecraft has been delivering data from its instruments to Earth via the Deep Space Network, and to date more than 17 gigabits of science data has been downloaded.

The spacecraft's first approach broke distance records; humanity's previous record-holder for a close approach to the sun, Helios 2, dove to about twice Parker Solar Probe's distance from the star in 1976. Parker also busted speed records, blazing by at 213,200 mph (343,112 km/h) relative to the sun.

The full dataset from the first orbit will be downloaded by April.

The closest approach in April will bring the spacecraft to a distance of about 15 million miles from the Sun - just over half the previous close solar approach record of about 27 million miles set by Helios 2 in 1976.

(with PTI inputs)