#3point8 Challenge
Join Parker Solar Probe as it makes its record-breaking approach of the Sun!
On Dec. 24, 2024, NASA's Parker Solar Probe will fly approximately 3.8 million miles from the solar surface — the closest solar approach in history — while traveling about 430,000 miles per hour — the fastest any human-made object ever has traveled.
To celebrate, join Parker's journey with a digital quest of your own: Each day from Dec. 17 - 24, 2024, we're hiding a new custom "3.8" digital sticker on a secret NASA webpage. Solve our puzzles to find them!
Quick Facts
At its closest approach to the Sun on Dec. 24, 2024, Parker will be traveling approximately 430,000 miles per hour! That’s fast enough to get from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C., in one second.
At 3.8 million miles from the Sun, Parker Solar Probe will be the closest any human-made object has been to the Sun.
During the perihelion, Parker Solar Probe's heat shield will reach temperatures up to 1,800° Fahrenheit (1,000° Celsius), while keeping the spacecraft's payload at about 85° Fahrenheit (29° Celsius).
How to Participate
Daily puzzles will be posted on @NASA Sun Science Facebook and @NASASun X.01Watch for daily puzzles
Each day at 12 p.m. EST, from Dec. 17 - 24, 2024, we'll post the day's puzzle on @NASA Sun Science Facebook and @NASASun X.
It might be a trivia question, a riddle, or even a math problem — so put on your thinking caps and get solving!- Enter your answer at the end of the url to locate the secret webpage.02
Find the hidden webpage
Solve the puzzle and add your answer to the end of this web address: go.nasa.gov/3point8_youranswerhere.
For example, if the puzzle is “What is the closest star to Earth?”, the corresponding web address would be go.nasa.gov/3point8_sun.
The correct answer leads you to the secret webpage where we've hidden that day's unique downloadable digital sticker. 
Example 3.8 campaign sticker. Each day's sticker looks different!03Share — but shhhhh!
Post your sticker with the hashtag #3point8 to prove you found it — but don't leak the link! (It's a secret, remember!)
Each day will have a new puzzle, a new secret webpage, and a new featured sticker. Collect them all!
Artistic rendering of the Parker Solar Probe flying near the Sun.04Go for speed
Parker Solar Probe is the fastest human-made object in history. Are you the fastest puzzle solver? Join the leaderboard and find out!
On each day's secret webpage, enter your preferred username to join the contest.
At 9 p.m. EST each day, we’ll post the leaderboard so everyone can see who solved the puzzles fastest.
Parker Solar Probe, shown in this animation, became the closest-ever spacecraft to the Sun on Oct. 29, 2018, when it passed within 26.55 million miles of the Sun’s surface.NASA/JHUAPL05Parker phones home
On Dec. 27 — when Parker Solar Probe sends the signal confirming it completed its close pass — we’ll share the overall leaderboard showing the fastest participants of the campaign.
NASA's Parker Solar Probe is a mission to “touch the Sun” and revolutionize our understanding of the only star we can study up close. It became the first spacecraft to fly through the corona – the Sun’s upper atmosphere – in 2021. Since then, orbital maneuvers have brought it even closer.
By traveling so close to the Sun, Parker Solar Probe is able to collect measurements and images to expand our knowledge of the origin and evolution of the stream of particles the Sun constantly emits called the solar wind. It also makes critical contributions to forecasting changes in the space environment that affect life and technology on Earth.
Since it was launched in 2018, Parker Solar Probe has been circling closer to the Sun with the help of gravitational flybys of Venus. Following the final flyby assist on Nov. 6, 2024, Parker Solar Probe settled into its final orbital configuration, taking it just 3.8 million miles from the surface of the Sun.
Being so close to the Sun will allow Parker Solar Probe to make new discoveries about our closest stellar neighbor. The spacecraft has already transformed our understanding of the Sun, so scientists are excited to see what it will uncover in this closer orbit.
