NASA spacecraft to approach the sun again

A spacecraft from NASA is about to have another close encounter with the sun, marking the second of three planned approaches through the incredibly hot solar atmosphere.

The Parker Solar Probe achieved a record-breaking first flyby when it came within 3.8 million miles (6 million kilometers) of the scorching sun back in December, surpassing the closest distance any object has ever reached.

The spacecraft was scheduled to make a similar journey on the following Saturday. Due to the flyby occurring outside of communication range, the Parker mission team will not receive any feedback until Tuesday afternoon.

Parker is the fastest spacecraft built by humans, and is once again set to hit 430,000 mph (690,000 kph) at closest approach.

Launched in 2018 to get a close-up look at the sun, Parker has since flown straight through its crownlike outer atmosphere, or corona.

Scientists hope the data from Parker will help them better understand why the sun’s outer atmosphere is hundreds of times hotter than its surface and what drives the solar wind, the supersonic stream of charged particles constantly blasting away from the sun.

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