NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Completes 19th Close Approach to the Sun

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe completed its 19th close approach to the Sun on March 30, matching its own distance record by coming about 4.51 million miles (7.26 million kilometers) from the solar surface.

The close approach (known as perihelion) occurred at 2:21 UTC (10:21 EDT), March 29, with Parker Solar Probe moving 394,736 miles per hour (635,266 kilometers per hour) around the Sun – again equaling its own record. The spacecraft checked in on April 2 with mission operators at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, where the spacecraft was also designed and built, with a beacon tone indicating it was in good health and all systems were operating normally.

An illustration of Parker Solar Probe's orbit shows the spacecraft's nineteenth solar encounter on Mar. 30, 2024, at 4.51 million miles from the Sun. — Parker Solar Probe’s 19th orbit included a perihelion that brought the spacecraft within 4.51 million miles of the Sun. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben

The milestone also marked the midway point in the mission’s 19th solar encounter, which began March 25 and continued through April 4.

Parker is still on track to make its closest approach on Dec. 24. At that point, with its orbit shaped by the mission’s final Venus gravity assist-flyby on Nov. 6, the spacecraft will zoom just 3.8 million miles from the solar surface, moving about 430,000 miles per hour.

By Michael Buckley
Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory