NASA’s #3point8 Challenge
After a six-year journey, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe was about to make history.
On Dec. 24, 2024, Parker would fly within 3.8 million miles of the Sun’s surface — the closest solar flyby in history — while traveling approximately 430,000 miles per hour, the fastest a human-made object has ever traveled.
Our Social Media Contest
To promote this incredible milestone, we held the #3point8 Challenge as Parker approached the Sun.
View on YouTubeOur Strategy
Beginning a week before Parker’s close encounter, the NASA Sun social media accounts (@NASASun and @NASASunScience) posted daily #3point8 Challenge “puzzles” — trivia questions, riddles, or even math problems.
Test your knowledge of science history.
Guess this two-word phrase.
Pay close attention.
How many times does the word “Parker” occur in this video? (“Parkers” also counts.)
View Post on XCheck your calculations.
The answer to each puzzle led to a hidden prize.
Participants solved the puzzle to complete the URL to a secret webpage…
…where they could download the day’s prize…
…and share it online to boast about their success…
…or even go for glory, competing for a spot on our daily leaderboard.
The fastest puzzle-solvers appeared on our daily leaderboard: A public ranking of the top 3, and then the next 8, fastest participants for the day.
The Finale
We posted a new puzzle each day from Dec. 17 through Dec. 24, when Parker made its historic flyby of the Sun.
But it wasn’t over yet!
Participants had to wait until Dec. 27, when Parker confirmed its successful flyby, to see the final leaderboard.
Key Metrics
- Boosting Our Products:
- The video Parker Solar Probe: Humanity’s Closest Encounter with the Sun, shared at the culmination of the campaign, was the second-most-watched video on NASA Goddard’s YouTube channel in the last 90 days, gaining 116,082 views and earning 618 new channel followers.
- The article NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Makes History with Closest Pass to the Sun, shared at the culmination of the campaign, was the most-viewed NASA.gov article in December 2024, with 71,200 unique visitors.
- Competition Was Hot: On Day 1, 52 minutes was fast enough to appear on the leaderboard. By Day 2, anyone who took over four minutes was too slow! Competition remained fierce all the way through the end of the campaign.
- Major Account Growth: The 58 posts that were part of this campaign received over 44,000 engagements. During December 2024 when the campaign took place, the @NASASun and @NASASunScience accounts gained 13.3K new followers (a 577% increase over the previous period’s growth).
The Internet Responds
Most importantly, our participants had fun! Here’s a snapshot of their responses.
