What’s a few million miles between friends? The perihelion of each orbit does seem to be getting closer to the sun, but the probe will run out of fuel and burn up long before ‘impact’. I wonder if a suitably designed solar sail could have worked as a drogue 'chute to slow it down more?
Sure, though that “close” approach was still many millions of miles away from the true surface of the sun.
Not to downplay the amazing achievement of course!
What’s a few million miles between friends? The perihelion of each orbit does seem to be getting closer to the sun, but the probe will run out of fuel and burn up long before ‘impact’. I wonder if a suitably designed solar sail could have worked as a drogue 'chute to slow it down more?
Sure, if we really wanted to “hit” the sun we theoretically could, given a purpose-built mission.