[ImNotLying]

When is it supposed to hit the sun?

[usconservative]

I don't think it's going to hit the sun. It's going to orbit the sun about 3.8 million miles away from it.

Just heard a great explanation on the Nasa live stream of how close that really is, I'll do my best to capture it completely here:

Imagine the Earth is in the end zone of a football field. On the other side of the football field is the Sun.

The Parker Solar Probe will get all the way to the four-yard line of the Sun. In football speak, that's easily well within the "red zone" and quite close to the sun.

I thought that was a great analogy by the woman from Nasa (don't remember her name) to explain it to us non-science types.

[mcmuffin]

When is it supposed to hit the sun?

It is scheduled to reach the sun at some time during the night...

[C210N]

When is it supposed to hit the sun?

Actually, I was wondering exactly that.

The craft will be enter six orbits around Venus and the Sun, with each orbit edging closer to the Sun by using the assist from Venus.

So, what happens then? If all goes well, after the 6th orbit, might they go for 7 and get even closer to the Sun? Or, just have it crash... Venus or the Sun are the two obvious choices.