Nothing built by human hands has ever traveled faster than NASA's Parker Solar Probe, a diminutive, scorch-proof spacecraft about the size of a small car that is practically "touching the sun."
In late April, it smashed two wild space records, dethroning the previous champion -- which also happened to be NASA's Parker Solar Probe -- and its journey is really just beginning.
The probe, which launched in August 2018 on a mission to study the sun, has been flying ever closer to our solar system's furnace, using the planet Venus as a slingshot.
Fastest human-made object: 244,255 mph (393,044 km/h).
Fastest human-made object: 330,000 mph (532,000 km/h).
Parker should break its own record later in the year when it uses another Venus flyby to slingshot closer to the sun.
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