In 2018, NASA launched the Parker Solar Probe with a mission no spacecraft had ever attempted: fly straight at the Sun, get incredibly close, and survive long enough to study its outer atmosphere. As it falls toward the Sun, the probe accelerates to truly extraordinary speeds.
Each close pass takes the Parker Solar Probe faster than the one before. At its top speed during its closest approach, the probe reaches about 430,000 miles per hour. That makes it the fastest human-made object that has ever existed. For comparison, a bullet from a high-powered rifle travels about 2,500 mph. Parker is roughly 170 times faster than that.
To survive the brutal heat near the Sun, the probe is protected by a 4.5-inch-thick carbon-composite heat shield that faces the Sun at all times. Behind the shield, the actual probe stays at around 30°C - about room temperature - even as the front of the shield reaches over 1,300°C. The shield is rotated automatically, like a robot’s umbrella against the most powerful light source in the solar system.
