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[00:00.40] NASA says a spacecraft that has been examining the sun’s outermost atmosphere recently got closer to our Earth’s star than any past explorer has.

[00:17.40] The American space agency announced its Parker Solar Probe passed within 6.1 million kilometers of the sun’s outer corona on December 24.

[00:33.33] Mission leaders established communication with the spacecraft after the operation and said the orbiter was safe.

[00:45.02] NASA launched the Parker Solar Probe in August 2018.

[00:51.66] Its mission is to study the sun’s powerful corona and solar wind.

[00:59.62] Solar wind is created by a continuous flow of charged particles, called plasma, into space from the corona.

[01:11.31] In 2021, NASA announced the orbiter had passed into the solar atmosphere for the first time.

[01:26.45] Researchers said at the time, the spacecraft had successfully “touched” the sun.

[01:30.70] Parker was believed to be about 13 million kilometers from the center of the sun when it crossed over into the sun’s outer atmosphere.

[01:43.72] In a statement, NASA’s Associate Administrator Nicky Fox praised the spacecraft’s latest pass-by of the sun.

[01:55.67] “Flying this close to the sun is a historic moment in humanity’s first mission to a star,” she said.

[02:06.83] Fox leads the agency’s Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

[02:18.25] The Parker Solar Probe is believed to have traveled at speeds up to 692,000 kilometers per hour during the mission.

[02:32.86] NASA said this was “faster than any human-made object has ever moved.”

[02:40.29] Fox said she hopes data collected by the spacecraft can help scientists better understand how the sun behaves and influences other elements in our solar system and beyond.

[02:56.76] “By studying the sun up-close, we can better understand its impacts throughout our solar system, including on the technology we use daily on Earth and in space.”