NASA's spacecraft will make another close approach to the Sun, the second of three planned passes through the sun's hot atmosphere.
The Parker Solar Probe made its record-breaking first flyby of 3.8 million miles (six million kilometers) from the Sun in December, coming closer than any object ever sent there before.
The mission is scheduled to attempt again on Saturday. Because the flyby is out of range, the mission team won't be able to receive data from Parker until Tuesday afternoon.
Parker is the fastest spacecraft ever built and is expected to reach 430,000 mph (690,000 km/h) again at closest approach.
Launched in 2018 with the goal of studying the Sun in detail, Parker has since flown straight through its crown-shaped outer atmosphere, known as the corona.
Scientists hope the information gathered by Parker will help them better understand why the sun's outer atmosphere is hundreds of times hotter than its surface and what drives the solar wind, the supersonic stream of charged particles that constantly blasts out from the sun.
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
