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[00:00.40] Fox added that such studies can provide valuable information “about the workings of stars across the universe to aid in our search for habitable worlds beyond our home planet.”

[00:22.44] NASA’s statement noted the agency’s earlier preparation and operations were all leading up to the latest mission.

[00:29.61] To help it get into the right position, the Parker Solar Probe received assistance from several flybys of the planet Venus.

[00:41.57] The last flyby happened on November 6, 2024.

[00:48.21] These gravitational assists had put the spacecraft “an ideal distance” from the sun every three months, NASA explained.

[01:01.22] This distance was “close enough to study our sun’s mysterious processes,” but not “to become overwhelmed by the sun’s heat and damaging radiation.”

[01:16.90] Developers of the spacecraft say it was built with a shield made with carbon material to protect it from the extreme heat released by the sun’s corona.

[01:30.97] The shield was designed to survive temperatures reaching 1,400 degrees Celsius.

[01:40.53] NASA says the data-gathering instruments are placed behind the shield.

[01:47.71] Nour Rawafi is the project scientist for Parker Solar Probe at NASA’s Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland.

[02:00.99] His team designed, built, and operates the spacecraft.

[02:06.57] He said Parker had performed as planned although it operates in “one of the most extreme environments in space.”

[02:17.72] Rawafi added that the mission had brought “a new golden era of space exploration, bringing us closer than ever to unlocking the sun’s deepest and most enduring mysteries.”

[02:34.46] Dr. Joseph Westlake is director of NASA’s Heliophysics Division, the part of the agency that studies the sun.

[02:45.88] Westlake noted that his team is preparing for more flybys in the future and hopes to capture more valuable data.

[02:56.51] Already, flybys of Venus have gathered information about the natural radio waves coming from Venus.

[03:05.80] In 2023, scientists announced they had learned new information about solar wind from data collected by Parker.

[03:18.55] Data showed that solar wind can reach speeds up to 1.6 million kilometers per hour.

[03:27.05] Solar wind forms a large magnetic barrier known as the heliosphere.

[03:34.22] It protects Earth and other planets from the continuous flow of high-energy particles from the sun’s corona.