Parker Solar Probe, launched on 12 August 2018, “touches” the Sun: it dives through the Sun’s outer atmosphere, the corona, to learn why it is millions of degrees hotter than the surface and how the solar wind is launched. Flybys of Venus shrank its orbit step by step until, on 24 December 2024, it passed just 6.1 million km from the Sun’s surface at about 690,000 km/h, the fastest speed of any human-made object. A thick carbon heat shield keeps its instruments near room temperature while its front side heats to about 1,000 °C. Watch its speed above: it changes enormously between the far point and the close point of its orbit.
Where is the Parker Solar Probe?
Computing…
About Parker Solar Probe
- Agency
- NASA
- Launched
- 2018-08-12
- Status
- Active
Goals
Parker Solar Probe flies through the Sun's outer atmosphere, the corona, closer than any spacecraft before it. It aims to find out why the corona is far hotter than the Sun's visible surface, what accelerates the solar wind and where the Sun's most energetic particles come from. These answers help forecast space weather, which can disturb satellites and their electronics.
Today
29th perihelion on 2026-09-04 (3.8 million miles, 430,000 mph), healthy beacon 2026-09-07. Extended into 2029 by the 2026 Heliophysics Senior Review. Perihelia recur roughly every 88 days (next date not confirmed by an opened source).
Questions and answers
Why doesn’t Parker melt?
Its heat shield, a sandwich of carbon foam and carbon composite with a white coating, reflects and blocks the heat; the probe keeps it pointed at the Sun.
Why is it so fast?
Falling towards the Sun, it speeds up, like a ball rolling downhill; at its closest point, the Sun’s gravity is strongest.
Where the numbers come from
Values refresh every second in your browser; the published data are checked every 10 minutes and updated several times a day.