A NASA spacecraft has made a lightning-fast pass through the sun’s outer atmosphere.
The Parker Solar Probe, protected by a powerful heat shield, ventured closer to the sun than any spacecraft before it, coming within 3.8 million miles (6.1 million kilometers) of the sun’s surface—seven times closer than any other probe has managed. This mission aims to explore the sun’s corona, the outermost part of its atmosphere, which plays a significant role in generating solar storms and weather patterns that can affect Earth.
In order to gain insights into the sun’s behavior, a spacecraft had to venture where none had gone before.
“It’s really exciting,” said Nour Raouafi, an astrophysicist from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory and project scientist for the mission, in an interview with Mashable. “The sun is like a laboratory to us.”
Although NASA made the announcement of the spacecraft’s historic flyby tonight, the Parker Solar Probe is scheduled to send a confirmation tone back to Earth on December 27, ensuring its safe passage.
To achieve this record-breaking approach, the probe has completed 22 orbits around the sun, gradually diving deeper into the corona. With each orbit, the spacecraft has picked up additional speed. As it repeatedly passes a giant gravitational object like the sun—whose mass is 333,000 times that of Earth—the spacecraft accelerates. In the vacuum of space, there’s nothing to slow it down.
During this close pass, the spacecraft reached a speed of approximately 430,000 miles per hour.
“It’s the fastest human-made object ever.”
“That’s like going from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C. in one second,” Raouafi exclaimed in awe. “It’s fascinating. It’s the fastest human-made object ever.”
{Matzav.com}
The Sun Warns Earth: “Steer Clear of Me, Or I’ll Incinerate You To Complete Obliteration!”
After a NASA spacecraft passed through the Sun’s outer atmosphere on Tuesday, the Sun issued a statement, warning Planet Earth not to encroach upon its territory or, “I’ll incinerate you to the point of complete obliteration.”
“I’m not kidding,” the Sun added, “please do not test me, ’cause I’ve got enough heat in my arsenal to turn your entire planet into a giant heap of ashes.”
NASA scientists told reporters on Tuesday that the Sun has already mobilized all of its blistering hot rays in preparation for a potential confrontation with NASA’s spacecraft.
“Planet Earth, your tiny flying machines and your ridiculously feeble ballistic missiles are no match for my blistering hot rays,” the sun added in the statement, “I’m warning you for the last time, ‘Do not approach my corona again, or it’s game over for you!”
In response to the Sun’s dire warning, Planet Earth issued a statement on Twitter addressing the boiling hot star, saying, “Excuse me, Mr. Sun, but I bear no responsibility for NASA’s actions. If you’ve got a gripe with NASA, direct your complaints to the space agency and stop blaming me for the actions of a few nerdy scientists.”
Additionally, the Earth went on to make a formal request of the Sun pleading with the scorching hot star to be, “A bit more judicious in the way you dole out your daily doses of rays to the world.”
“Your sunlight is greatly appreciated,” Planet Earth said in the tweet, “but can I request of you to please send me a little less heat in the Summer, and a lot more heat in the Winter?”
“A little more common sense and balance in the way you distribute your sunlight,” Earth said in the tweet, “would go a long way in creating everlasting harmony between you and me. Thank you. Best wishes! And may you have a warm and cozy Winter!”
Whom are these fictitious reports for? You have to be a first-class meshugeneh to believe this, especially since you’ve already learned about NASA’s credibility and that they never landed on the moon.