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A Journey to the End of Time

The Solar System in 3D, in real time

A simulation of the Solar System driven by real ephemerides. The Sun, the planets, Pluto and the major moons, space probes, the International Space Station, nearby stars and the black hole at the centre of the Milky Way are where they really are at the chosen moment. You can run time from 1700 to 2100, fly from one object to another and look at the sky from anywhere on Earth.

Parker Solar Probe

Space probe

Facts

Launch
12 August 2018
Closest distance to the Sun
about 6.2 million km
Top speed
about 700,000 km/h
Heat shield
11.4 cm of carbon composite, up to nearly 1377 °C

Parker Solar Probe is a NASA probe launched on 12 August 2018 to study the Sun up close. In 2021 it became the first to “touch” it, flying through its corona: NASA announced it on 14 December 2021.

It is named after the astrophysicist Eugene Parker: it is the first NASA mission named after a living researcher, who visited the spacecraft on 3 October 2017. Parker died on 15 March 2022.

Sources