Nasa’s Parker Solar Probe has broken its own record. Achieving a speed of 635,266 kilometres (394,736 miles) per hour, it’s now the fastest thing to be built by humans. On 27 September, during its 17th loop around the sun, it broke its 2021 record of 586,000 kilometres (364,621 miles) per hour achieved during its 10th solar flyby.

• The Parker Solar Probe was launched in 2018 to collect data about the outer corona, the outermost layer of the Sun.
• The corona is hotter than the layer immediately below it. The reason for this coronal heating has been an unsolved puzzle for scientists.
• By 2025, the probe is scheduled to complete 24 loops around the sun. At its closest approach, the spacecraft will come within about 3.8 million miles of the Sun. “If the distance between Earth and the Sun was the length of a football field, the spacecraft would be around 4 yards from the end zone,” Nasa explains in a press statement.