Parker Solar Probe Photos Reveal Closest View of Sun
In December 2024, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe set a new record by flying just 6.1 million kilometers (3.7 million miles) from the Sun’s surface. From this incredible proximity, directly from our star’s corona — the hot outer atmosphere — it returned unique images and data. This information helps scientists understand, as never before, the mechanisms that shape space weather, which affects the entire solar system, including our Earth.
“Parker Solar Probe has once again taken us into the dynamic atmosphere of our nearest star,” said Nicky Fox, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “We’re seeing firsthand where Earth-threatening space weather conditions originate, rather than just predicting them with models. This new data will help us dramatically improve our forecasts to keep astronauts safe and protect technology on Earth and throughout the solar system.”
Parker Solar Probe’s close flybys of the Sun and dives into its corona allow it to observe solar wind flows, their turbulence, and their origin zones. These observations have given scientists a better understanding of the conditions under which the fast and slow solar winds form.
Further flybys of Parker Solar Probe through the corona, the next of which is scheduled for September 15, 2025, should help to finally confirm hypotheses about the origin of the slow solar wind and continue monitoring the dynamics of the corona.
