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NASA’s Parker Solar Probe survived its closest approach to the sun

The spacecraft will make two more close passes in 2025

Illustration of a roughly cylindrical spacecraft near the sun. The sun is emitting a large coronal loop.

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe (illustrated here) is the closest artificial object to the sun.

APL/NASA

By Lisa Grossman

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe skimmed the sun on Christmas Eve and lived to tell the tale.

The heat-hardened spacecraft made its closest solar flyby yet at 6:53 a.m. EST on December 24. It came within 6.1