NASA Probe Captures the Closest Photos Ever of the Sun

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe performed the closest-ever pass by the Sun late last year, and NASA has just released the remarkable images from the historic fly-by.

The Solar Probe, which launched in 2018 to study the Sun’s outer corona, passed just 3.8 million miles from the Sun’s surface, orbiting the star from inside its atmosphere. The new images, taken closer to the Sun than any artificial object has ever been before, provide scientists with valuable data required to study the Sun’s influence on Earth and the rest of the solar system.

“Parker Solar Probe has once again transported us into the dynamic atmosphere of our closest star,” says Nicky Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “We are witnessing where space weather threats to Earth begin, with our eyes, not just with models. This new data will help us vastly improve our space weather predictions to ensure the safety of our astronauts and the protection of our technology here on Earth and throughout the solar system.”

The probe made its historic journey near the Sun on Christmas Eve last year and captured its incredible images using an array of instruments, including the Wide-Field Imager for Solar Probe, also known as WISPR.

The images WISPR captured show the Sun’s corona and solar wind, which is a constant and mysterious stream of charged particles that travel through the solar system. The solar wind propels materials and magnetic forces into the solar system, and is responsible not only for the beautiful auroras in Earth’s atmosphere, but also for disrupting power grids and communications systems when the solar wind is especially potent.

“The WISPR images give scientists a closer look at what happens to the solar wind shortly after it is released from the corona. The images show the important boundary where the Sun’s magnetic field direction switches from northward to southward, called the heliospheric current sheet,” NASA explains.

The new images also captured multiple coronal mass ejections (CMEs) colliding — an essential component of space weather — for the first time ever in high-resolution detail.

“In these images, we’re seeing the CMEs basically piling up on top of one another,” explains Angelos Vourlidas, the WISPR instrument scientist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. This lab designed, built, and operates the Parker Solar Probe.

“We’re using this to figure out how the CMEs merge together, which can be important for space weather,” Vourlidas continues.

Scientists note that when CMEs collide, their trajectory and strength can be significantly altered. Collisions among CMEs can pose a significant threat to astronauts in space and Earth-based technologies.

The Parker Solar Probe has played a crucial role in enhancing humanity’s understanding of the Sun and the solar wind. When the spacecraft got within 26.5 million miles of the Sun in October 2018, three months after launching, it became the closest artificial object to the Sun. It has since reached significantly closer distances, including the record-breaking approach on December 24, 2024. During regular passes by the Sun, the probe has provided new details about the Sun’s magnetic fields, coronal boundary, and its surface.

While the probe has helped solve many mysteries, there are still many unknowns for scientists to untangle, including precisely how solar wind is generated and how it escapes the Sun’s immense gravitational forces.

“Understanding this continuous flow of particles, particularly the slow solar wind, is a major challenge, especially given the diversity in the properties of these streams — but with Parker Solar Probe, we’re closer than ever to uncovering their origins and how they evolve,” says Nour Rawafi, the Parker Solar Probe’s project scientist at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.

The Parker Solar Probe’s next pass is scheduled for September 15, 2025, and scientists are eager to see what new data the spacecraft will collect during this time.

Image credits: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Naval Research Lab. Additional video credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Joy Ng