Parker Solar Probe

NASA's Parker Solar Probe is the fastest object ever built by humans

At the Parker probe's speed of approximately 200 kilometers per second, traveling to Proxima Centauri (approximately 4.24 light-years away) would take more than 20,000 years

The Parker probe's peak speed is only about 1/1500 of the speed of light (approximately 0.067%)

The Parker probe's record-breaking speed comes primarily from the Sun's enormous gravity, with the probe being continuously accelerated as it falls into the Sun's gravitational well

The Parker probe uses multiple Venus flybys with gravity assists to decelerate relative to the Sun, thereby falling into an increasingly tight orbit

At the Parker probe's peak speed, orbiting the Earth would take about three and a half minutes, and crossing the continental United States would take about 25 seconds

The Parker Solar Probe reached a speed of approximately 430,000 miles per hour during its closest solar flyby, roughly 120 miles per second (200 kilometers per second)

At its closest approach to the Sun, the intensity of sunlight at the Parker Probe's location is approximately 475 times that at Earth.

NASA's Parker Solar Probe has flown as close as approximately 3.8 million miles above the Sun's photosphere, penetrating deep into the corona.

The key to the Parker Probe's survival in the corona lies in the fact that temperature and heat are not the same thing—the corona, though extremely hot, is exceptionally tenuous.

The Parker Probe is equipped with a heat shield made of carbon composite material, with the front face reaching temperatures of approximately 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit (approximately 1,370 degrees Celsius), while the spacecraft body is maintained at near room temperature.

The Parker Probe's carbon composite Thermal Protection System (TPS) is approximately 11.4 centimeters thick, consisting of carbon foam sandwiched between two layers of carbon fiber panels.

There is a physical limit to how close the probe can approach the Sun; as it ventures deeper into the Sun's denser inner layers, particle density rises sharply and the heat shield cannot withstand the thermal energy conducted directly by the dense material.

NASA launched the Parker Solar Probe in 2018 to collect data to help answer the coronal heating problem.

帕克探测器于2018年11月5日抵达近日点，以每小时179000英里的速度飞行成为人类制造的最快物体，任务末期将提升至每小时43万英里

帕克隔热罩能使背面温度从1400°C骤降至30°C

帕克探测器的热防护系统核心结构是两层碳-碳复合板，中间夹着约4.5英寸厚的碳泡沫，整个隔热罩重量约73公斤

NASA的帕克太阳探测器是一项耗资15亿美元的深空探测使命

帕克探测器计划完成24圈轨道飞行，通过七次金星飞掠逐步将近日点从3500万英里缩减至380万英里

帕克太阳探测器的命名源于天体物理学家尤金·帕克，他在1958年首次从理论上预言了太阳风的存在