Tag: NASA Parker Solar Probe

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635266kmph! NASA sets new speed record with Parker Solar Probe! Craft turns fastest human-made object

In the depths of space, the Parker Solar Probe, launched by NASA in 2018 to explore the Sun, has achieved a remarkable milestone. Racing around our star at an astonishing speed of 635266kmph, it has become the fastest human-made object in history, surpassing the legendary SR-71 Blackbird by nearly 180 times.Breaking the Speed BarrierImagine hurtling through space at such incredible velocity, completing 15 Earth circumnavigations in an hour. This incredible feat occurred during the probe's 17th orbit around the Sun, only three years after setting its previous speed record of 586,863 kph, Business Insider reported. What makes the Parker Solar Probe's achievement even more remarkable is that it doesn't rely on artificial propulsion. Instead, it follows a precisely planned orbit around the...
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Shocking find by NASA Parker Solar Probe; Lightning on Venus may be meteors crashing

NASA is running various space missions to find out the secrets of the universe. One of the major missions of the space agency is the Parker Solar probe. The spacecraft has been tasked with orbiting the Sun to find out crucial data around sunspots, solar flares, coronal mass ejections (CME), and solar storms. However, in its journey, it routinely flies past Venus. And this has allowed Parker Solar Probe to possibly find the reason behind one of the biggest phenomena that has confused scientists for years. It found that the lightning on Venus may not actually be lightning at all. In fact, they are likely to be meteors that are striking the planet and are burning up in its atmosphere.Venus lightning stormsThe revelation came in 2021 when the Parker Solar Probe executed a routine flyby of ...
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Trouble for Aditya-L1? NASA Parker Solar Probe gets caught in a dangerous CME whirlwind

Solar activity has been rising significantly, with solar storms hitting the Earth left, right, and center with high frequency. But it is not just the Earth that is dealing with such impacts. Recently, NASA shared terrifying footage of the Parker Solar Probe flying through an intense coronal mass ejection (CME) cloud. This was the first time the NASA spacecraft had to endure such an ordeal, and it managed to come out unscathed from the incident and collected some important data along the way. However, such impacts are known to badly damage satellites and spacecraft alike, and with ISRO's Aditya-L1 mission spacecraft reaching its destination at Lagrange 1 point in four months to observe the Sun, there is a fear that it may have to suffer a similar fate.According to a NASA blog post, “On ...
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NASA’s Parker Solar Probe to help understand geomagnetic storms, prevent internet apocalypse

NASA's Parker Solar Probe (PSP) has gathered crucial data that could help prevent a potential internet apocalypse caused by solar storms. A recent study reveals that understanding the origin of solar wind is essential in predicting these storms, which can have devastating effects on satellites, the electrical grid, and communication networks on Earth. The research team suggests that fast solar winds are produced through a process called magnetic reconnection, where magnetic fields on the sun create solar storms that strike the Earth's magnetosphere, as per Hothardware reports. When this happens, it sparks geomagnetic storms on Earth and that can cripple satellites, Internet, power grids, radio communications and more on Earth.Geomagnetic storms also generate the fascinating auroras. Sc...
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Big setback for NASA! Parker Solar Probe crashes!

NASA's miracle spacecraft that virtually touches the Sun is in trouble. The Parker Probe is designed to make a series of close flybys of the Sun to measure various properties of the solar wind, including its speed, temperature, and magnetic field. Basically, it is important for scientists to study almost everything about the Sun. Sadly, in an unfortunate event, an instrument on NASA's Parker Solar Probe went has crashed. It went offline suddenly on February 12, the space agency informed in a blog post. Considering it is so far away from earth and solutions are possible remotely only, has it jeopardised NASA's Sun mission?There is good news and bad news! Good one first. The mission team expects Parker Solar Probe to come back online soon. “It happened during the application of an appro...
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This bizarre object is FASTER than light? What did NASA Hubble Space Telescope catch?

NASA Hubble Space Telescope thought it spotted something that should not exist, which was travelling at a mind-altering rate 7 times faster than light! On Earth, we have created some really fast objects. For instance, the speed of a bullet out of a gun can be as high as 4,200 kilometers per hour, which is three times the speed of sound. But it is not even the fastest thing. The fastest man-made object would be the NASA Parker Solar Probe spacecraft which reached a speed of 535,000 kilometers per hour using the Sun's gravity! Now, that is fast. But you would be surprised to know that it is just 0.05% of the speed of light (300,000 kilometers per second). So, you can imagine just how fast light really is. And till now, it was surmised that nothing can travel faster than light. But the ...
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Astonishing! NASA’s Parker Solar Probe to fly through a solar flare

NASA’s Parker Solar Flare is expected to fly through a solar flare near the Sun. Will the solar probe survive or perish? Know what NASA has to say. The solar activity has been constantly rising these past few weeks due to the Sun nearing the middle of its 11-year solar cycle, which began in December 2019. As the Sun reaches its peak, the frequency of Solar Storms, Solar Flares, Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) and other solar phenomena are set to rise, according to NASA. Scientists expect solar activity to be at its peak in the year 2025 when the Sun is in the middle of its solar cycle. NASA hopes that its Parker Solar Probe will catch a solar flare in the near future as it completed its 13th close encounter with the Sun on Sep...
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NASA puts Parkar Solar Probe in harm’s way, exposes it to a dangerous solar flare; will it survive?

Parker Solar Probe recently completed its 13th close encounter with the Sun and NASA hopes it will get hit by a powerful solar flare. Intriguingly, NASA hopes that its Parker Solar Probe will be hit by a solar flare in the near future even as it completed its 13th close encounter with the Sun yesterday, September 6. According to the space agency, the solar activity is already exceeding the expectations of scientists as the Sun slowly moves towards the peak of its 11-year solar cycle, which began in December 2019. Scientists expect solar activity to be at its peak in the year 2025 when the Sun is in the middle of its solar cycle.Nour Raouafi, Parker Solar Probe project scientist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory...