You’re looking at the closest-ever images of the Sun. Taken by our Parker Solar Probe during a close flyby, they show the solar wind racing out from the Sun’s outer atmosphere, the corona. Images and data from this mission are helping scientists better understand the Sun’s influence across the solar system, including events that can affect Earth. https://go.nasa.gov/4kA9vSO | NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

33K views · 446 reactions | Three years after its launch, the Parker Solar Probe made its first passage through the sun's upper atmosphere. In 2018, we got a behind-the-scenes look at how NASA engineers built the probe to survive the tremendously hot journey. | NPR | Facebook

Today the Parker Solar Probe will make its 9th close approach to the Sun. The spacecraft holds the record for the top spacecraft speed and the closest distance to the Sun at perihelion. "Perihelion" is the closest point in an object's orbit to the Sun. In the case of Parker Solar Probe, that's about 10.4 million kilometers (6.5 million miles) from the solar surface. For context, today the Earth is about 152 million kilometers (94 million miles) from the Sun. What's the most amazing thing you kno