Six million kilometers away from the Sun’s surface, the heat is nearly 1,000 degrees Celsius, or 100 times the temperature it takes to boil water on Earth.
Such high temperatures can melt and destroy objects, except for the Parker Solar Probe (PSP) of the United States space agency NASA.
The spacecraft launched in 2018 to study the Sun has a carbon foam shield that can withstand heat of up to 1,426 degrees Celsius to keep instruments inside it working, Astronomy.com reported.
On 28 December, the PSP was six million kilometers away from the Sun, its closest approach to the giant fireball. The PSP will pass closer to the Sun again on 22 March and 19 June, according to NASA.
Meanwhile, the heat from the Los Angeles wildfires, which destroyed many houses in affluent communities, ranged from 538°C to 1,204°C, according to reports. The Palisades Fire that ignited on 7 January burned the Malibu homes of Mel Gibson, Jeff Bridges and other celebrities.
Among the few houses that miraculously survived the inferno was that of surf and skateboard designer Megan Krystle Weinraub.
Aside from Weinraub’s apartment in a hill near the Getty Villa along the Pacific Coast Highway, her 1977 blue Volkswagen van parked on the street was unscathed.
“I’m speechless to see all the houses burnt, and I can’t believe that Azul the bus — that’s what we named it — survived,” she told CNN.
“Everything around it was toasted, just destroyed. And then there’s this bright blue shiny van, sitting right there,” her friend Preston Martin, the original owner of the van, said, according to CNN.
Meanwhile, a thankful Weinraub started a raffle and donation campaign to support those affected by the wildfires, KTLA 5 reported.