The Fastest Human-Made Object
NASA's Parker Solar Probe is the fastest human-made object, reaching about 692,000 km/h near the Sun.
Also known as: Fastest spacecraft ever
The Parker Solar Probe holds the record for the fastest human-made object, reaching roughly 692,000 km/h as it swings close to the Sun.
What it is
The fastest human-made object is NASA's Parker Solar Probe, launched in 2018 to study the Sun's outer atmosphere. During its closest approaches it reaches a speed of about 692,000 km/h (430,000 mph) relative to the Sun, roughly 0.064% of the speed of light. At that pace it could travel from New York to Tokyo in under a minute.
The probe achieves this by repeatedly using Venus's gravity to tighten its orbit, falling ever closer to the Sun and accelerating as it plunges through the corona. A carbon-composite heat shield keeps its instruments near room temperature while the shield's face endures more than 1,000 °C.
Before Parker, the record was held by the German-American Helios 2 probe of the 1970s, at about 253,000 km/h.
Related entries
Sources & further reading
- Parker Solar Probe — Fast Facts — NASA / Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (article)