NASA’s groundbreaking Parker Solar Probe made history on Tuesday, achieving the closest-ever flyby of the Sun, coming within a mere 3.8 million miles (6.1 million kilometers) of our star. During this record-setting encounter, the spacecraft’s heat shield faced temperatures soaring above 1,700 degrees Fahrenheit (930 degrees Celsius). Launched in August 2018, the Parker Solar Probe is on a seven-year mission to expand our knowledge of the Sun and improve space-weather predictions that could impact life on Earth.

The probe’s closest approach, known as perihelion, took place at approximately 6:53 AM (11:53 GMT) on Tuesday. However, mission scientists will not receive confirmation until Friday due to the temporary loss of communication, which occurs as the spacecraft moves into the Sun’s intense vicinity.

“It’s an extraordinary achievement—Parker Solar Probe is flying closer to a star than any other spacecraft in history,” stated NASA official Nicky Fox in a social media video. “It’s a total ‘yay, we did it’ moment!” Fox added that if the distance between Earth and the Sun were compared to the length of an American football field, Parker Solar Probe would have been just four yards (meters) from the end zone at its closest approach.

Arik Posner, Parker Solar Probe program scientist, expressed excitement, saying, “This is one example of NASA’s bold missions, doing something that no one else has ever done before to answer long-standing questions about our Universe.” Scientists eagerly anticipate receiving the first data update as the spacecraft continues its journey.

Thanks to its innovative heat shield, Parker Solar Probe’s internal instruments remain at a comfortable 85 °F (29 °C), despite the extreme conditions of the Sun’s outer atmosphere, the corona. The spacecraft will also be moving at incredible speeds, reaching about 430,000 mph (690,000 kph)—fast enough to travel from Washington, D.C., to Tokyo in under a minute.

Nick Pinkine, mission operations manager at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, noted, “Parker will truly be returning data from uncharted territory. We’re excited to hear back from the spacecraft when it swings back around the Sun.”

The Parker Solar Probe’s close proximity to the Sun is helping scientists tackle some of the Sun’s most puzzling mysteries, such as the origins of solar wind, why the corona is hotter than the Sun’s surface, and how coronal mass ejections (massive plasma clouds) are formed.

This flyby, which took place on Christmas Eve, is just the first of three planned ultra-close passes. The next two are scheduled for March 22 and June 19, 2025, with both expected to bring the spacecraft to similar, record-breaking distances from the Sun.

By Impact Lab