NASA’s Parker Solar Probe becomes the fastest artificial object ever, 180 times faster than our fastest plane!

Zooming through space at a velocity three times faster than the legendary SR-71 Blackbird, which held the title of the fastest manned aircraft, is an experience that can feel surreal. Retired pilots have described looking up at the sky, witnessing stars and the Sun racing past in an almost otherworldly manner, with the only sensation of speed being the rapid movement of the craft’s gauges.

However, the SR-71's remarkable speed maxes out at 3,540 kilometres per hour. Can you fathom hurtling through space at a speed nearly 180 times greater?

For the Parker Solar Probe, a NASA spacecraft launched in 2018 with a mission to study the Sun, this is everyday life. Recently, though, the probe took it up a notch, darting through the vastness of space and around the Sun at an astonishing 635,266 kilometres per hour, clinching the title of the fastest human-made object ever!

At such incredible speeds, the probe could complete roughly 15 circumnavigations of the Earth in just an hour and traverse the entire length of India, stretching 3,214 kilometres, in under half a minute. This record-breaking achievement occurred during the probe's 17th orbit around the Sun as part of its quest to investigate the solar corona's environment, only three years after its previous speed record of 586,863 kph.

It's worth noting that Parker Solar Probe achieves these feats without artificial propulsion. Following its initial launch, the probe follows a precisely planned orbit around the Sun. It gradually moves closer under the influence of the Sun's gravitational pull, spiralling inwards at ever-increasing speeds. By 2025, it will be racing at approximately 690,000 kph, which corresponds to around 0.064% of the speed of light.

On its 24th and final orbit, the Solar probe is expected to approach close enough to essentially "plunge" into the Sun. This offers seven more orbits' worth of opportunities to gather valuable data about our central star. Notably, it is the closest we've ever dispatched a spacecraft to the Sun, hovering just 7.26 million kilometres above the seething ocean of plasma that makes up the Sun's surface.

Our knowledge of the Sun is extensive, but every piece of information we collect is pivotal, aiding us not only in comprehending its behaviour but also in predicting how its activities influence our planet. After decoding the enigmatic lightning on Venus, the Parker Solar Probe is poised to delve further into understanding the flow of energy in the solar corona, solar winds, the Sun's magnetism, and various other aspects as it continues its spiral orbit around our fiery celestial neighbour.