Scientists await signal from NASA's Parker Solar Probe after historic close sun flyby.

On the heels of a NASA spacecraft's historic close flyby of the sun on Christmas Eve, scientists on Earth have one question on their minds: Did their probe survive as an epic Christmas gift, or is it a burned up lump of coal in space?

For a few days, they simply won't know, at least not until the spacecraft — NASA's Parker Solar Probe — phones home with a simple "status beacon" on Friday (Dec. 27) to let its science team know it's okay. But scientists behind the spacecraft's sun flyby on Dec. 24 are confident their spacecraft would survive the trip.

The Parker Solar Probe flew within 3.8 million miles (6.1 million kilometers) of the solar surface to "touch the sun" on Tuesday in what was the closest approach to the star by any human-made object. At the time, the spacecraft was streaking by the sun at a mind-blowing 430,000 mph (690,000 kph), making it the fastest spacecraft ever, NASA has said. It was expected to experience scorching hot temperatures of up to 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit (980 degrees Celsius) during the encounter.

But the entire flyby was automated. The last time scientists heard from the Parker Solar Probe was on Friday night (Dec. 20), when the probe sent a beacon transmission "indicating all spacecraft systems were operating normally," NASA officials said in a update at the time.

It won't be until around midnight on Friday (Dec. 27) when scientists expect to receive their next call from the spacecraft at its mission operations center at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland.

Source: www.space.com

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