The winner of the 2018 Popsci New Thing of the Year award continues to impress. NASA's Parker Solar Probe is still closer to the Sun than any other spacecraft, setting new speed records in the process. According to the space agency's latest update, the Parker Solar Probe broke its own record (again) with a staggering speed of 394736 miles per hour, becoming the fastest man-made object ever built.
This latest milestone was made possible thanks to a previous gravity-assisted flyby from Venus, which took place on September 27, halfway through the rover's 17th "solar encounter", which lasted until October 3. As Science Alert also noted on October 9, the speed assumption of the Parker Solar Probe allows the plane to fly around the Earth about 15 times per hour, or jump between New York City and Los Angeles in just 20 seconds. Not that any passenger will survive such a journey, but it's still impressive.
The most recent pass also set a new record of 4.51 million miles from the "surface" of the solar plasma. In order not to evaporate at temperatures up to nearly 2500 degrees Fahrenheit, the Parker Solar Probe is equipped with 45-inch thick carbon composite shroud to protect their sensitive instruments. These tools are measuring and imaging the surface of the Sun to further understand the origin and evolution of the solar wind and to help** changes in the space environment that could affect life on Earth. Last month, for example, the probe crossed one of the most intense coronal mass ejections (CMEs) ever observed. In doing so, the vehicle helped prove a 20-year-old theory that coronal mass ejections interact with interplanetary dust, which will improve the capabilities of experts in space weather forecasting.
Despite the painful journey, NASA reported that the Parker Solar Probe is still healthy and that "all systems are functioning normally." Despite many records, the probe is far from complete; By 2024, there are still seven solar transit plans. By that point (within Mercury's orbit), the Parker Solar Probe will finally succumb to the extreme influence of the Sun, evaporating into the solar wind — "a somewhat poetic ending," as one mission researcher told Popsci in 2021.