A NASA spacecraft has become “safe” after making the closest approach ever to the sun with a man-made object, the US space agency said.
NASA said that the Parker Solar Probe reached a distance of 3.8 million miles from the surface of the sun on Christmas Eve.
It traveled at speeds of 430,000 miles per hour as it flew into the outer atmosphere of our nearest star, called the corona, enduring temperatures of up to 982 degrees Celsius.
The mission operations team at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, received the signal on the evening of Boxing Day, the agency said.
The spacecraft, which was on a mission to help scientists learn more about the Sun, is expected to send back detailed data about its condition and experiments on New Year’s Day.
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NASA said: “After its record approach to the sun, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe sent a beacon tone to Earth indicating that it is healthy and operating normally.”
Scientists hope the mission will take measurements to help them better understand how materials near the Sun are heated to millions of degrees, learn where the solar wind comes from, and discover how energetic particles are accelerated to near the speed of light.
Launched in 2018, the Parker Solar Probe is gradually orbiting closer to the sun, flying by Venus to use the planet’s gravity to move it into a tighter orbit.