Fastest Object Ever Made By Humans Continues Circling the Sun, 500x Faster Than Sound

An anonymous reader shared this report from ScienceAlert:NASA's Parker Solar Probe, tasked with taking a close-up look at the Sun's outer corona, has just equalled the record for the fastest-moving human-made object ever.The previous record holder? The Parker Solar Probe, again.The probe was recorded traveling at 635,266 kilometers (394,736 miles) per hour on June 29, the second time it's reached that speed since it launched in 2018. We're talking around 500 times faster than the speed of sound here.It's on course to get even faster too, with a top speed of around 692,000 kph (430,000 mph) expected when it makes its closest approach to the Sun in 2025. It's the probe's 20th approach to the sun, according to the article, with the probe using Venus "to create a sort of gravity-powered slingshot," according to the article. (NASA has created a nice interactive 3D model of the probe...) Besides collecting particle samples in 2021, "The probe is eventually going to get nice and close to the swirling mass of ultra-hot plasma surrounding the Sun, and take a wealth of different measurements to help improve our scientific understanding of it."

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