December 2024: Solstice, Sun Flyby and Year-End Sport
On Tuesday, December 24, 2024, NASA's Parker Solar Probe passed within 6.1 million kilometers of the Sun's surface. Its speed: 394,700 mph, the fastest any spacecraft has flown, on the closest pass ever made. The month around that record ran 31 days, from Sunday, December 1 to Tuesday, December 31. Winter began officially at the solstice on Saturday, December 21. The moon packed all five phases into the month, with new moons on the 1st and the 30th.
The shape of December 2024
The count: 31 days, 22 business days, nine weekend days. Five Sundays, five Mondays and five Tuesdays; four of every other weekday. Week numbers ran 48 to 52, then tipped into week 1 of 2025, an early look at next year.
Five moon phases fit inside one month. The sequence: new December 1, first quarter December 8, full December 15, last quarter December 22, new again December 30. Two new moons make a tidy pair of bookmarks.
The closest pass to the Sun
The December 24 flyby carried the Parker Solar Probe through the corona, the Sun's outer atmosphere. No human-made object has moved faster or come nearer the Sun. On Friday, December 27, the probe radioed home that it had survived, and its data began the long trip back.
The mission team had aimed at that pass for years. Distance and speed both set records, and so did the nerve.
Winter weather, and grief at year-end
The solstice on Saturday, December 21 measured the year's tilt: shortest day in the north, longest in the south. The season came in hard. Cyclone Chido tore across Mayotte on Saturday, December 14 with winds above 220 km/h, damaging most of the island's buildings. Around 40 people died there, and more than 100 in Mozambique after the storm moved on.
The year's last week brought two airline disasters. Thirty-eight people died near Aktau, Kazakhstan on Wednesday, December 25. At Muan, South Korea on Sunday, December 29, 179 of 181 aboard died. December 2024 should be remembered whole.
Endings, in sport and song
Sunday, December 8 stacked the endings high. The Eras Tour played its final show in Vancouver, the first tour past 2 billion dollars. McLaren sealed its first Formula 1 constructors' title since 1998 in Abu Dhabi the same day. That weekend, Paris also opened Notre-Dame to the public again, five years after the fire.
The Milwaukee Bucks lifted the NBA Cup on Tuesday, December 17. The first 12-team College Football Playoff opened on Friday, December 20. Squid Game returned on Thursday, December 26 and drew 68 million views in its first four days.
A spacecraft brushed the Sun's neighborhood and came back with data, and the year closed on a tidy Tuesday. Paper is patient.