The graphic at right depicts a prior dip around Venus, but the principle is the same here on the last dip around Venus (completed this past Wednesday): Parker used a massive gravity assist -- to pick up speed and then sprint inward toward this close approach to the Sun. In fact, it will be the closest Parker ever approaches our home star -- and the closest any human made object will have ever traveled past the Sun.
Parker needs the extra speed, so that it is able to escape from the gargantuan tug of the Sun's gravity. Here's a bit from NASA on it all:
. . .On Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe will complete its final Venus gravity assist maneuver, passing within 233 miles (376 km) of Venus’ surface. The flyby will adjust Parker’s trajectory into its final orbital configuration, bringing the spacecraft to within an unprecedented 3.86 million miles of the solar surface on Dec. 24, 2024. It will be the closest any human made object has been to the Sun.
Parker’s Venus flybys have become boons for new Venus science thanks to a chance discovery from its Wide-Field Imager for Parker Solar Probe, or WISPR. The instrument peers out from Parker and away from the Sun to see fine details in the solar wind. . . .
And with that, a tumultuous week closes -- onward, grinning. . . go Buffs -- tomorrow at 3 pm local!
नमस्ते
No comments:
Post a Comment