If All Went Well, Goddard Should Hear Back From The Speedy, Lithe Parker Solar Craft, Tomorrow By Radio: Dip No. Fourteen, Completed!

As our home star approaches its eleven year "solar max" cycle wave peak. . . lil' Parker will have endured very active solar flares -- and radiation bursts, on this fourteeth dip near the outer edges of the local solar coronasphere. She is now moving at a speed that (if she were flying over Earth) she could go from New York to Tokyo in under two minutes.

We expect she will ping back, in absolutely perfect health tomorrow, having begun this dip on December 6^th. . . and reached her closest approach point on the morning of the 11^th. . . but we won't know for certain until she passes out of radio silence, and re-orients her high gain antenna and dish toward home, and Earth. So we will wait, for the morning, to come:

. . .During the spacecraft’s previous close encounter with the Sun on Sept. 5, it flew through one of the most powerful coronal mass ejections in recorded history. As the Sun’s activity continues to increase on its approach toward solar maximum – the period of greatest activity during the Sun’s 11-year cycle – scientists expect Parker to fly through and observe more exciting phenomena from its unprecedented vantage point.

“It’s a very exciting time to have a spacecraft flying so close to the Sun and observing its activity,” said Nour Raouafi, Parker Solar Probe project scientist at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland. “The first part of the mission was during the solar cycle minimum, when we learned so much about the relatively quiet conditions in the solar atmosphere. Now Parker Solar Probe embarks on a renewed journey where the Sun is more active. Every close encounter opens up new opportunities to understand better how the Sun works and how it affects us here on Earth and beyond.”

The spacecraft entered the encounter in good health, with all systems operating normally. Parker Solar Probe is scheduled to check back in with mission operators at Johns Hopkins APL – where it was also designed and built – on Dec. 17. . . .

Now you know, with about two new inches of fluff on the ground here, already. . . looking like. . . Christmas, indeed (for just one more slumber). Smile. . . .

नमस्ते