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NASA probe takes images from 'closest' ever spot from the Sun

11 July 2025 12:20 Washington (dpa) US space agency NASA on Thursday released images captured by a probe within the Sun's atmosphere. NASA's Parker Solar Probe started its closest approach to the Sun on December 24, getting as close as 6.1 million kilometres to the solar surface, the space agency said. NASA said the images were "taken closer to the Sun than we've ever been before," and showed features in the corona and solar wind - a constant stream of electrically charged particles from the star that rage across the solar system at speeds exceeding 1 million miles an hour. The Parker Solar Probe, about the size of a small car, launched in 2018 and in 2021 became the first spacecraft to enter the Sun's atmosphere. This is the view from WITHIN the Sun's atmosphere! ☀️👀🛰️NASA's Parker Solar Probe just released imagery from its closest-ever flyby of the Sun, revealing details in the solar atmosphere that scientists will be studying for years. More: — NASA Sun & Space (@NASASun) July 10, 2025 "Parker Solar Probe has once again transported us into the dynamic atmosphere of our closest star," said NASA's Nicky Fox. "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 images were taken with the Wide-Field Imager for Parker Solar Probe (WISPR). The tool, about the size of a shoebox, is the only imaging tool on the probe. The new WISPR images show the corona and solar wind as well as the heliospheric current sheet - the boundary where the star's magnetic field direction switches from northward to southward. The tool also captured the first high-resolution images of the collision of multiple coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, which are a key driver of space weather."In these images, we're seeing the CMEs basically piling up on top of one another," said Angelos Vourlidas from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, which designed, built and operates the spacecraft. "We're using this to figure out how the CMEs merge together, which can be important for space weather," Vourlidas said.