Nasa’s solar probe sets new record, goes closest to sun THE MISSION
■ Helios 2 held previous record
Washington: Nasa’s Parker Solar Probe, mankind’s first mission to ‘ touch’ the Sun, has set a new record for closest approach to the Sun by a humanmade object, the US space agency announced.
Parker Solar Probe was launched on August 12 this year on an unprecedented, seven- year long journey to unlock the mysteries of the Sun’s fiery outer atmosphere and its effects on space weather.
The spacecraft passed the current record of 26.55 million miles from the Sun’s surface on October 29 as calculated by the Parker Solar Probe team, Nasa said in a statement.
The previous record for closest solar approach was set by the GermanAmerican Helios 2 spacecraft in April 1976, it said.
As the Parker Solar Probe mission progresses, the spacecraft will repeatedly break its own records, with a final close approach of 3.83 million miles from the Sun’s surface expected in 2024, it said.
“It’s been just 78 days since Parker Solar Probe launched, and we’ve now come closer to our star than any other spacecraft in history,” said Project Manager Andy Driesman, from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory ◗ in the US.
“It’s a proud moment for the team, though we remain focused on our first solar encounter, which begins on October 31,” Driesman said.
Parker Solar Probe is also expected to break the record for fastest spacecraft travelling relative to the Sun.
The current record for heliocentric speed is 153,454 miles per hour, set by Helios 2 in April 1976, according to Nasa.
Parker Solar Probe’s speed and position were calculated using DSN measurements made on October 24, and the team used that information along with known orbital forces to calculate the spacecraft’s speed and position from that point on. Oldenburg, Germany: Former nurse Niels Hoegel, admitted Tuesday to killing 100 patients in his care, on the first day of his trial in the biggest serial killing case in Germany’s postwar history.
Hoegel, 41, has already spent nearly a decade in prison on a life term for other patient deaths, and is accused of intentionally administering medical overdoses to victims so he could bring them back to life at the last moment.
As the proceedings opened in the northern city of Oldenburg, presiding judge Sebastian Buehrmann asked whether the charges against him were accurate. Hoegel replied quietly “yes”.
“What I have admitted took place,” he told the courtroom crowded with dozens of grieving relatives. As the proceedings began Buehrmann said the main aim of the trial was to establish the full scope of the murder spree that was allowed to go unchecked for years at two German hospitals. “We will do our utmost to learn the truth,” he sa- id. “It is like a house with dark rooms — we want to bring light into the darkness.”
After a minute of silence in the courtroom for the victims, the bearded, heavyset Hoegel listened impassively, his head lowered, as public prosecutor Daniela Schiereck- Bohlmann read out the name of each dead patient and the charges against the defendant.
Prosecutors say at least 36 patients were killed at a hospital in Oldenburg where he worked, and about 64 more at a clinic in nearby Delmenhorst, between 2000 and 2005. More than 130 bodies of patients who died on Hoegel’s watch have been exhumed, in a case investigators have called “unprecedented in Germany to our knowledge”.
One of the more than 100 co- plaintiffs in the trial, Christian Marbach, said it was a scandal that Hoegel had been allowed to kill with impunity for such an extended period of time without hospital authorities or law enforcement intervening.
“They had everything they needed ( to stop him) — you don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes,” Marbach, the grandson of one of the patients, told us. He later expressed surprise about Hoegel’s quick confession, which was broadcast on two large screens to the courtroom audie- nce. “I didn’t expect it to happen today,” he said.
“We now have a chance to make some real progress.” Marbach said the defendant seemed remarkably composed as he admitted to the extraordinary list of killings. A second trial followed in 2014- 15 under pressure from alleged victims’ families, who accused prosecutors of dragging their feet.
Launched on August 12 this year, the Parker Solar Probe is on an unprecedented, seven- year long journey to unlock the mysteries of the Sun’s fiery outer atmosphere and its effects on space weather