NASA’s Parker Solar Survey made history with the closest approach to the sun ever made in December, and we finally saw some of the images it captured. The Space Agency released the time of an observation through Parker’s WISPR on December 25, 2024, and the Observatory passed the solar corona (external atmosphere) on December 25, 2024, revealing how solar energy performs shortly after its release. The detector captured these images, just 3.8 million miles from the sun’s surface. To see through this, NASA video explains: “If the Earth and the Sun are one foot apart, the Parker solar detector is about half an inch away from the Sun.”
The detector’s perception of solar wind and coronal mass ejection (CME) during approach is omnipotent, which may be invaluable to our understanding of space weather. “We are witnessing space weather threatening the planet, not just models,” said Nicky Fox, deputy administrator of the Science and Mission Bureau at NASA headquarters. After completing December’s Flyby, Parker Solar Pooce matched record distances to the surface in subsequent approaches in March and June. It will be on its next pass on September 15th.
