Solar System Simulator · Spacecraft · live
Where is Parker Solar Probe right now?
Diving past the Sun every 88 days, 6 million km above its surface. Launched 12 August 2018 by NASA.
Worked out for Fri, Oct 23, 2026 (UTC) from JPL Horizons.
What Parker Solar Probe is doing
Parker Solar Probe flies closer to the Sun than anything before it. Its orbit, shaped by seven Venus flybys, takes it within 6.1 million km of the Sun's surface every 88 days, through the corona itself, at nearly 700,000 km/h at closest approach: the fastest any spacecraft has gone.
What happens next
Its primary mission ended in 2025 after 24 passes through the corona; it keeps flying the same orbit on an extended mission, measuring the solar wind where it is born.
Timeline
| When | Event |
|---|---|
| 12 Aug 2018 | Launch |
| 3 Oct 2018 | First Venus flyby |
| 5 Nov 2018 | First close pass of the Sun |
| 28 Apr 2021 | First pass through the corona |
| 6 Nov 2024 | Seventh and last Venus flyby |
| 24 Dec 2024 | Record closest pass |
| 19 Jun 2025 | Primary mission complete |
What the simulator does
- Open the Now tab: the clock jumps to this minute and pauses, and every probe is drawn where JPL Horizons puts it, among the planets where they really are.
- Pick Parker Solar Probe and the view centres on it; the compressed distance scale keeps even the Voyagers in the frame.
- The positions come from JPL's tables, refreshed every day; the planets come from the simulator's own physics on today's date.
Questions people ask
Where is Parker Solar Probe right now?
Parker Solar Probe is 0.73 AU from the Sun, 108.6 million km (67.5 million mi), and 0.92 AU from Earth. Light from it takes 7.6 minutes to reach us.
How far is Parker Solar Probe from Earth?
0.92 AU, 137.1 million km (85.2 million mi) from Earth today, so a radio signal takes 7.6 minutes each way.
How close to the Sun does Parker Solar Probe get?
About 6.1 million km from the Sun's surface at each closest approach, inside the corona, where its heat shield faces about 1,400 °C.
How is its position worked out?
From JPL Horizons, NASA's ephemeris service, which tracks every spacecraft from its radio signals. This site keeps a table of positions a few days apart and reads today's from it; the page is rendered for the day it is served.
Keep going
The distances come from JPL Horizons, refreshed daily; the map and the simulator place the planets with the site's own physics.