NASA's Parker Solar Probe had once again broken two monumental records, making it one of the important probes to have been sent on space.
On Thursday, Apr. 29, the solar orbiter had slingshot its way towards the Sun while traveling at an unimaginable record-breaking speed enough to circle the Earth 13 times in an hour.
NASA Parker Solar Probe's Records
Since its launch from Cape Canaveral on Feb. 9, 2020, NASA's Parker Solar Probe, the scorch-proof space orbiter designed to discover the Sun's mysteries, had flown around the Sun eight times--fourth via gravity-assist flyby with Venus--with each time breaking its own record.
According to CNet's Apr. 29 report, the solar orbiter had come within around 6.5 million miles (10.4 million kilometers) of the Sun's surface while moving at a blazing speed of 330,000 miles per hour (532,000 kilometers per hour).
The feat made the Parker Solar Probe break its own record as the fastest man-made object, and the spacecraft that had come closest to the Sun.
The last records set by the solar probe were made on February 2020, when it flew at a speed of 244,255 mph (393,044 km/h) and had come within 11.6 million miles (18.6 million kilometers) around the Sun's surface.
The Parker Solar Probe would be collecting data on the solar environment using its four onboard instrument suites until May 4.
The data collected by the solar probe would be sent to space observatories, including NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory.
The Magnetic Puzzle Discovery
During one of its voyages around the sun, the Parker Solar Probe had found signs of a wild ocean of waves and currents previously unseen.
NASA dubbed these as switchbacks, as it displayed rapid flips in the Sun's magnetic fields similar to that of a zigzagged road.
These switchbacks were first observed by Ulysses, the first spacecraft by the joint NASA-European Space Agency to have flown over the Sun's poles.
According to NASA's report on Mar. 9, the solar wind raises the question as to how the Sun managed to shoot out these gusts with speeds reaching up to two million miles per hour (3.21 million kilometers per hour).
"This is the scientific process in action," said Heliophysics program scientist Kelly Korreck. "There are a variety of theories, and as we get more and more data to test those theories, we get closer to figuring out switchbacks and their role in the solar wind."
The discovery led to scientists debating over the nature of the switchbacks and came up with three theories: that it is a product of a dramatic magnetic explosion in the Sun's atmosphere, a byproduct of turbulent forces stirring it up, or a combination of both.
The switchbacks observed around the Sun's atmosphere are one of the many mysteries the Parker Solar Orbiter mission aims to unravel.
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Written by Leigh Mercer
