The NASA Parker Solar Probe is speeding towards the Sun to begin its delegation but that does n’t mean it ca n’t take a moment to look back at where it came from . On September 25 , the probesnapped a pictureof Earth from 43.5 million kilometers ( 27 million miles ) away .
The image ( on the good - hand side of the picture above ) was take using the Wide - flying field Imager for Solar Probe , or WISPR , which is made up of two telescopes pointing at slightly different views of the sky . The extinct scope take the figure of speech of the Earth . The instrument will be used to note feature in the Sun ’s standard atmosphere , like its Corona , before the investigation passes underneath .
whizz along in on the Earth reveals a trivial protrusion on its right side , which is none other than the Moon peeking out from behind our satellite . While Earth certainly occupy halfway stage in this picture it is not the only astronomical feature deserving noting . The Pleiades mavin bunch is just to the left field of the Earth in the same board . And the stars known as Bellatrix and Betelgeuse can be seen at the bottom of the 2nd ikon , which was get by the investigation ’s inner telescope and can be seen on the left - hand side of the picture above .
The panel that contains the Earth also has a big lens flare in the middle , due to the brightness of the Earthshine . Shots containing Mercury and Venus might create similar effect in the future tense , but they wo n’t have much of a scientific impact . The features this telescope is looking for will be faint so it is determine up to focus on those rather than the brighter object .
The probe performed its first flyby of Venus on October 3 and has almost reached its first close encounter with the Sun . get it on as its perihelion , this will happen on November 6 when the probe will be 24.1 million kilometers ( 15 million miles ) from the open of our superstar , slightly more than half the space between Mercury and the Sun . It will eventually pass as close as 6.9 million kilometer ( 4.3 million mile ) from the Sun . At its confining plan of attack , it will reach the unbelievable speed of 690,000 kilometers ( 430,000 miles ) per time of day .
The investigation is named after physicist Eugene Parker who augur important aspects of solar physics and come up with the terminal figure “ solar wind ” to draw the current of particles that the Sun throws into the Solar System . The investigation is expected to retain operation until 2026 .
