NASA’s Parker Solar Probe is attempting its closest approach to the Sun

But why go to all this effort to “touch” the Sun?

Scientists hope that the spacecraft will pass through our star’s outer atmosphere – its corona – and solve a long-standing mystery.

“The corona is really, really hot and we don’t know why,” said Dr Jennifer Millard, an astronomer at the Fifth Star Laboratory in Wales.

“The surface of the Sun is about 6000C, but the corona, this thin outer atmosphere that you can see during solar eclipses, reaches millions of degrees – and it’s further away from the Sun. So how does that atmosphere heat up? ?”

The mission should also help scientists better understand the solar wind – the constant stream of charged particles that are ripped from the corona.

When these particles interact with Earth’s magnetic field, the sky lights up with dazzling auroras.

But this so-called space weather can also cause problems by knocking out power grids, electronics and communication systems.

“Understanding the Sun, its activity, the space weather, the solar wind is critical to our daily lives on Earth,” says Dr Millard.