Things are heating up for USA's National Aeronautical Space Administration (NASA). One of agency's missions is to study the Sun. In 2018, NASA sent small research probe to photograph our nearest star. The spacecraft is called Parker Solar Probe. It made history on Christmas Eve by going closer to the Sun than any spacecraft has ever gone before. Parker flew to within 6.1 million kilometers of the Sun. This is very close. Parker also holds another record. It is fastest object ever built by humans. In September 2023, it flew at speed of 635,266 kph. At this speed, probe could travel 10,846 km from New York to Tokyo in just 1.025 minutes.
The Parker Solar Probe is named after astrophysicist Dr Eugene Parker. He spent most of his life studying the Sun and its solar flares. He wanted to know why flares, which shoot off from the Sun's surface, are hotter than surface. This is known as "coronal heating problem". It is long-standing mystery for scientists. The temperature at the Sun's surface is around 4,100ºC; while temperature of corona's flares can reach 1.1 million degrees Celsius. Scientists also hope to find out how solar winds originate. NASA said Parker (the probe) has faced extreme heat on its record-breaking fly-by. Temperatures reached scorching 980 degrees Celsius.
