Parker Solar Probe touches the Sun
A spacecraft flies through the corona at 692,000 kilometres an hour, the fastest object ever built.
- When
- Known to
- ± 12 hours
- Era
- Contemporary, Holocene
On 24 December 2024 Parker passed 6.1 million kilometres from the Sun's surface — inside the corona — at 692,000 km/h, both records for a human-made object. Its carbon-composite shield held the instruments at room temperature while its face reached about 1,000C. The mission has shown that the switchbacks in the solar wind originate at the base of the corona, addressing a puzzle that had stood since the 1940s.