By BlueShift | 2025-08-19

In the seven years since its launch, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has captured the closest-ever images of the sun, gathering data from within the solar atmosphere that deepens understanding and improves space weather predictions.

The spacecraft completed its 24th and final close approach to the sun (perihelion) on June 19, at the conclusion of its primary mission, and will continue its observations until the next phase of the mission is reviewed in 2026.

During its first perihelion, on December 24, 2024, and in subsequent passes, the spacecraft travelled 3.8 million miles from the solar surface.

It reached a record-setting speed of 430,000 miles per hour, making it the fastest human-made object in history.

The probe's thermal protection system, a carbon foam shield, endured temperatures of up to 1,700 degrees Fahrenheit, safeguarding the spacecraft's instruments as it skimmed through the sun’s corona.

Despite intense conditions, all of the probe's systems are functioning normally.

Studying the solar wind

One of Parker Solar Probe’s primary objectives is to study the solar wind -- a continuous stream of charged particles released by the sun.

First theorized in 1958 by visionary US astrophysicist Eugene Parker, who laid the groundwork for the field of heliophysics, the solar wind plays a significant role in shaping space weather.

It can generate auroras, strip planetary atmospheres, and induce electric currents that affect power grids and communication systems on Earth.

The spacecraft's imaging instrument, the wide-field imager for solar probe (WISPR), has captured stunning images of the solar wind’s origins, revealing critical details about its behavior and structure.

These images are helping scientists understand how solar wind interacts with the heliosphere, the vast bubble of charged particles surrounding the solar system.

Images have revealed features such as switchbacks -- zig-zagging magnetic fields -- and the boundary of the corona, more complex than previously thought.

The probe also has provided high-resolution images of coronal mass ejections (CMEs), large outbursts of charged particles that drive space weather.

For the first time, scientists observed CMEs colliding and merging, a phenomenon that can alter their trajectory and amplify their effects.

Understanding space weather

While the fast solar wind’s origins have been linked to magnetic funnels on the sun’s surface, the slow solar wind remains a mystery, with new discoveries suggesting it may originate from helmet streamers or coronal holes.

The Parker Solar Probe has identified two types of slow solar wind: Alfvénic, characterized by small-scale switchbacks, and non-Alfvénic, which lacks magnetic field variations.

These findings are helping scientists understand the physics of space weather. By studying the sun’s activity during its 11-year cycle, the probe is helping them predict solar storms and their impact on astronauts, satellites and power grids.

This knowledge is essential for future missions to the moon and Mars.

Developed as part of NASA’s Living with a Star program and managed by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, Parker Solar Probe's mission honors Eugene Parker’s pioneering work.

Parker, who died in 2022, became the first person to witness the launch of a spacecraft bearing his name in 2018.

As Parker's namesake spacecraft moves his groundbreaking work forward, with the help of a new generation of scientists, it promises to unlock more secrets of the sun and further humankind's understanding of the solar system.