NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has just become the closest ever human-made object to the Sun, passing the current record of 26.55 million miles away from the surface. The German-American Helios 2 spacecraft made the previous closest solar approach all the way back in April 1976. Using the Sun’s own gravity to assist, the spacecraft is expected to reach a mind-boggling speed of 430,000 miles per hour. That will not only break the heliocentric speed record but also make it the fastest object ever made by human hands, as my colleague Jesse Hanahan put it. The Parker Solar Probe will endure brutal conditions of heat and radiation during its seven-year mission to answer key questions about our star, including why its corona is so hot.

Source: Forbes October 30, 2018 09:22 UTC