CLOSEST PHOTO OF THE SUN TAKEN BY PARKER SOLAR PROBE REVEALED BY THE SUN

NASA's Parker Solar Probe has made many circuits around the sun since its initial launch in 2018, getting closer and closer each time. It was the first spacecraft to fly into the sun's top atmosphere, or corona, in 2021, enduring what NASA refers to as "brutal heat and radiation" in order to gather priceless interstellar data. However, the probe did not accomplish one of its greatest achievements until the end of last year.

The Parker Solar Probe, which is only 3.8 million miles from the solar surface, started its closest approach to the sun on December 24, 2024. While there, the probe used a range of scientific tools, such as the Wide-Field Imager for Solar Probe (WISPR), to gather data and take new photographs. NASA said last month that these WISPR photographs provide an unprecedented look into the solar wind, a "continuous stream of electrically charged particles that rage throughout the solar system," and the sun's corona. Even though the event can overwhelm electrical grids and affect Earth's communications systems, it also sends materials and magnetic currents out of the sun, which can show up as colourful auroras.

In a statement, Nicky Fox, associate administrator of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA's Washington headquarters, said, "With our eyes, not only with models, we are experiencing where space weather risks to Earth begin." "This new data will help us greatly improve our space weather predictions to preserve our technology here on Earth and throughout the solar system, as well as to secure the safety of our astronauts."

The photographs are noteworthy because they show the collision of numerous coronal mass ejections (CMEs) in high resolution for the first time. Similar to a solar wind, CMEs are massive eruptions of charged particles that have a significant influence on space weather. However, CMEs can accelerate charged particles and mix magnetic fields when they contact and alter their route, making them a more serious hazard to Earth-based electronics, people, and satellites in space. Scientists and astronomers may better forecast—and better plan for—how space weather will impact Earth and the solar system overall by examining the probe's most recent imagery.

According to Angelos Vourlidas, a WISPR instrument scientist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, "we're seeing the CMEs practically piling up on top of one another in these photos." "This will help us determine how the CMEs combine, which may be crucial for space weather."

Scientists can learn more about the solar wind, its formation, and how it precisely avoids the sun's "immense gravitational attraction" when they combine these close-up photos and data points.

“Given the variability in the features of different streams, it is a significant challenge to understand this constant flow of particles, especially the slow solar wind,” says Nour Rawafi, project scientist for the Parker Solar Probe at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. "But we're closer than ever to learning about their origins and evolution thanks to Parker Solar Probe."

On September 15, 2025, the probe will finish its subsequent journey through the sun's corona.