(Al Jazeera Media Network) The United States space agency has confirmed its Parker Solar Probe is safe after making the closest approach to the Sun recorded by a human-made object.
The probe passed just 6.1 million kilometres above the Sun’s surface on December 24, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said early on Friday.
It flew into the Sun’s outer atmosphere — known as the corona — “at a blazing 430,000 miles per hour [692km/h] — faster than any human-made object has ever moved”, the agency reported.
NASA said its team had received a beacon signal late on Thursday, confirming that the probe had made its approach successfully and was operating normally.
“Flying this close to the Sun is a historic moment in humanity’s first mission to a star,” Nicky Fox, head of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA headquarters in Washington, DC, said in a statement.