Flying through the solar system at 635,266 kilometers (394,736 miles) per hour, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe broke the record for the fastest human-made object ever.

The September 27 event marks a milestone in the mission’s 17th orbit around the Sun, collecting data on the hot charged particle winds and strong magnetism surrounding the nearest star, and comes less than three years after the previous record of 586,863.4 kilometers. (364,660 miles) per hour.

At these speeds, the plane will be able to circle our planet approximately 15 times per hour or fly from New York to Los Angeles in just 20 seconds. This is not only a record speed, but also a record proximity to the Sun; It’s just 7.26 million kilometers above the bright plasma ocean we think of as the star’s surface.

Considering that the Sun is just under 1.4 million kilometers in diameter, it would be the same as standing a few feet away from a burning campfire. Close enough to smell the smoke, but not so close that it burns your nose hairs.

Achieving such incredible results was not the result of powerful engines (at least not entirely) but rather a perfectly timed game of space mini golf.

To reach the area of ​​action, the Parker solar probe must penetrate and leave the solar corona. Unfortunately, we are standing on a mobile launch pad hurtling into space at tens of thousands of kilometers per hour.

NASA used a powerful rocket to align the shot and send the heat shield ball into the green sky at a speed designed to offset Earth’s orbital velocity and roll toward the throat of the solar system.

The planet’s gravity is used to synchronize the probe’s orbit with the crawling transit of Venus, slowing the probe enough to orbit the drain in a gradually decreasing spiral.

After a total of 24 orbits, the Parker Solar Probe must finally topple over and leave the space agency with a hole; but not before we’ve collected a lot of information that will help us better model the Sun’s behavior. With seven more laps to go, we will see these records broken again, each a reminder of what can be achieved with a little physics and a lot of curiosity. Source