NASA’s Parker Solar Probe accomplished a milestone on June 27, 2023—its 16th orbit of the sun. This includes a close approach to the sun (known as perihelion) on June 22, 2023, where the spacecraft came within 5.3 million miles of the solar surface while traveling at 364,610 miles per hour. The spacecraft emerged from the solar flyby healthy and operating normally.
On August 21, 2023, the Parker Solar Probe will fly past Venus for its sixth flyby of the planet. To prepare for a smooth course, the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) mission team applied a small trajectory correction maneuver on June 7, 2023, the first course correction since March 2022.
This flyby was the sixth of seven planned flybys of Venus during Parker’s primary mission. Parker used Venus’ gravity to tighten its orbit around the sun and set an incoming perihelion at 4.5 million miles from the sun’s surface. As the sun becomes more active, this perihelion becomes more important in learning more about heliophysics.
Provided by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Citation: NASA’s Parker Solar Probe completes 16th approach to the sun (2023, July 3) Retrieved July 4, 2023 from https://phys.org/news/2023-07-nasa-parker-solar -probe-16th.html
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