WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - On a mission to 'touch the Sun,' NASA's Parker Solar Probe has made history by becoming the spacecraft that flies closest to the Sun.
After losing communication for a few days during its burning-hot fly-by, the mission operations team at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, received the signal just before midnight EST on Thursday, NASA said in an update.
Following its record-breaking closest approach to the Sun, Solar Probe has transmitted a beacon tone back to Earth indicating it is in good health and operating normally.
The team was out of contact with Parker Solar Probe as it sped toward its closest-ever flight around the Sun on Christmas Eve, with the spacecraft zipping just 3.8 million miles from the solar surface while moving at about 430,000 miles per hour, enduring temperatures of up to 1,800F.
The spacecraft is expected to send back detailed telemetry data on its status on January 1.
This close-up study of the Sun allows Parker Solar Probe to take measurements that help scientists better understand how material in this region gets heated to millions of degrees, trace the origin of the solar wind, and discover how energetic particles are accelerated to near light speed. Previous close passes have helped scientists pinpoint the origins of structures in the solar wind and map the outer boundary of the Sun's atmosphere.
Parker Solar Probe was developed as part of NASA's Living With a Star program to explore aspects of the Sun-Earth system that directly affect life and society.
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