NASA’s Parker Solar Probe is flying closer to the Sun than any other object ever

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe made history Tuesday with a record-breaking flyby around the sun, the space agency confirmed. The spaceship set a new metric early morning on December 24, coming within 3.8 million miles of the sun’s outer corona.

A signal received by NASA operations teams late on December 26 confirmed that the probe had survived the close encounter and was operating normally.

“Flying this close to the Sun is a historic moment in humanity’s first mission to a star,” Nikki Fox, head of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, said in a statement Friday.

When the spacecraft reaches a new position in January 2025, it will transmit data from that flyby back to Earth.

Read more: Check out NASA’s stunning image of the Sun erupting in its biggest solar flare of 2017.

According to NASA, the Parker Solar Probe has reached speeds of up to 430,000 miles per hour, withstanding temperatures of up to 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit (982 Celsius). Although the probe is scheduled to circle the sun two more times, this mission marks the closest it will ever come.

The next scheduled close solar transits are expected to occur on March 22 and June 19, 2025.

“Data from uncharted territory”

The mission is part of a broader effort by scientists to “conduct unparalleled scientific research with the potential to transform our understanding of our nearest star,” the agency said in its website.

The spacecraft, launched in 2018, made multiple flybys of Venus to gradually approach the sun. Those flybys also gave scientists insight into Venus, thanks to onboard instruments capable of picking up visible and near-infrared light from the planet, the agency said on its website. This allowed researchers to peer through Venus’ dense cloud cover.

When the probe first entered the solar atmosphere in 2021, it provided groundbreaking information about the corona.

“No man-made object has ever passed this close to a star, so Parker will really be returning data from uncharted territory,” said Nick Pinkin, Parker Solar Probe’s mission operations manager, in press release in December. “We’re excited to hear back from the spacecraft as it orbits back around the Sun.”

The Parker Solar Probe is part of NASA’s Living With a Star program, which aims to study aspects of the solar system that affect life on Earth.