NASA's Parker Probe became the fastest spacecraft of all time

Approximately 2 months after being shot, NASA's Parker Probe became the first man-made object to approach the Sun. On Monday, it was 42.73 million kilometers from our star, thus improving the previous record set by the American-German Helios 2 probe on April 2, 1979.

Parker broke another record for the fastest spacecraft at relative speeds to the sun. The previous record of 246,960 kilometers per hour was placed by the Helios-2 probe in April 2016. Parker managed to develop 248,228 km / h or 0,00023 times the speed of light.

Moreover, on November 5, the probe would have to "plunge" into the Sun's photo sphere - that part of the star that remains visible from the Earth in full solar eclipse. The first mission data is expected in December.

Parker was fired on August 12th. Its mission is to make an unprecedented study of the Sun. It will pass about 6.4 million kilometers from our star's surface, which is 7 times closer than the Helios 2 apparatus in 1972. The station will be closer to our star and the planet Mercury.