Christmas Eve Solar Probe by the Sun is closest thing we have to an NGM parody item . . .

[Scott T. Shier]

Years ago (perhaps around the 2010 timeframe) I chanced upon a parody magnet of an NGM cover, titled "Safely on the Sun", and it also included mock sub-headlines about the fictitious feat. The date of the NGM issue is January 2023!

Here is the magnet ---> 

So on Christmas Eve 2 weeks ago, NASA's Parker Solar Probe attempted a flyby of our Sun in what was not sure to be a successful mission to gather telemetry and other data about our sun's corona and temperatures, etc. 

After losing brief contact, the probe survived, made its pass by the sun at a range of 3.8 million miles (closest flyby object ever), traveling at 430,000 miles per hour. This makes the Parker Solar Probe the fastest object ever made by man as well.  

The probe is still in-process of sending back it's data. 

The spacecraft is scheduled for two more flybys in 2025 at approximately the same speed and distance from the sun — on March 22 and June 19.

Anyway, this accomplishment by NASA reminded me of the parody/spoof magnet, so I thought I'd share the magnet and the news story (link here).

[George Thomas Wilson]

That magnet reminds me of a joke I heard a long time ago:

An Israeli scientists announce that his country was going to land the first men on the sun.

When asked, "Won't it be to hot?", he responded, "That's okay, we'll land at night."

[Scott T. Shier]

ha-ha!