The firm machine humanity has ever created is not one of theVoyager SpacecraftorNew Horizonsas one might expect . Instead , it is a space probe start in the other counseling , towards the Sun to canvass it . Back in 2018 , NASA ’s Parker Solar Probe localise the record for thefastest human - create object(if you do n’t matter microscopical atom ) in the universe and then break it inMay this class . This weekend it ’s set to break it again .
Parker ’s old f number record was 532,000 kilometers per hour ( 330,000 mile per hour ) . At that speed , you could get to the Moon and back in about 80 minutes rather than the traditional three - Clarence Shepard Day Jr. journeying just to get there , but that ’s still not fast enough for some function , so on Sunday , November 21 , Parker will up its speed to 587,000 km / h ( 365,000 mph ) . That ’s 163 kilometers ( 101 miles)persecond .
That ’s not the fastest Parker will ever move . bar an unfortunate encounter with a quad rock ( which at these amphetamine would n’t have to be large at all to establish catastrophic ) , Parker will finally achieve a speed of 692,000 km / h ( 430,000 mph ) in December 2024 .
As theMichelson - Morely experimentproved , and Einstein explained , there is no universal cosmic still betoken , so stop number is only meaningful relative to something . Parker ’s speeds are measured relative to the Sun , not Earth .
This will be the 10th flyby of the Sun by the probe , as it gets closer to the object of its affection . The addition of velocity over time follow as the probe move an elongated range , make little raid as close as 6 million kilometers ( 4 million mi ) from the Sun , before hightailing it back out to cool off . In social club to get faithful to the Sun , Parker realize close approaching to planets to use their gravity to impel itself into orbits that can take it even closer to the Sun , and therefore faster . Last month it made itsfifth flyby of Venusto find its current compass . It will make two more major orbital adaption before its mission is ended .
position swiftness criminal record might be cool , but it ’s just a side - effect of the mission to learn about the Sun , and its immediate surrounds . “We’re observing higher than expected amounts of dust near the Sun,”Dr Nour Raouafiof Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Labs said in astatement . Parker studies the detritus indirectly , using electrical sensors to canvas the plasma clouds produce when rubble clash with the probe .
“ What ’s exciting about this is it ’s greatly meliorate our savvy of the innermost regions of our heliosphere , give us insight into an surround that , until now , was a total enigma , ” Raouafi said .
As impressive as these speeds are , Parker ’s flush will be 0.064 per centum of the hurrying of light . Even if it could somehow conserve that maximum on an outward journey it would take 6,700 years to reach the nearest star . you’re able to see why we needsomething different .
