The Parker Solar Probe has broken the record for the closest a human-made object has ever come to the sun, passing the 16.55 million mile marker at 1:04 p.m., according to a release by NASA.
The backdrop: Later this evening, the probe is expected to also break the record for the fastest spacecraft traveling relative to the Sun — faster than 153,454 miles per hour. Both records had been held since 1976 by the German-American Helios 2 spacecraft. “It’s a proud moment for the team," Project Manager Andy Driesman, from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland told NASA, "though we remain focused on our first solar encounter, which begins on Oct. 31.” The goal of the Parker Solar Probe is to shed insight on the inner workings of our closest star.
Super Typhoon Yutu struck the Northern Mariana Islands on October 24, packing maximum sustained winds of 180 miles per hour and gusts higher than 200 mph. This made it the most intense storm to strike U.S. soil since at least 1935, and one of the strongest storms ever measured on Earth.
The big picture: Before and after satellite photos taken by DigitalGlobe's WorldView-3 satellite provide a first look at the devastation the storm brought to the islands of Tinian and Saipan in particular.
