Nasa's Parker Solar Probe breaks record, reaches closest ever to the sun

NASA's historic Parker Solar Probe -- enroute to the Sun to unravel its mysteries -- has become the closest spacecraft to it.

The spacecraft passed the current record of 26.55 million miles from the Sun's surface on October 29, as calculated by the Parker Solar Probe team, NASA said in a statement on Monday.

The previous record for closest solar approach was set by the German-American Helios 2 spacecraft in April 1976.

As the Parker Solar Probe mission progresses, the spacecraft will repeatedly break its own records, with a final close approach of 3.83 million miles from the Sun's surface expected in 2024.

"It's been just 78 days since Parker Solar Probe launched, and we've now come closer to our star than any other spacecraft in history," said Project Manager Andy Driesman from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. Read Complete Article

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