What happens near the Sun? NASA’s Parker probe sends closest-ever photos of the Sun, unveils space weather origins

NASA has released the closest photos ever taken of the Sun, captured by the Parker Solar Probe during a record-breaking flyby in December 2024. The images show the Sun’s outer atmosphere and solar wind in stunning detail. It will help scientists better understand the forces that shape space weather.

Launched in 2018, the Parker Solar Probe was designed to study the Sun’s corona. On Christmas Eve last year, it flew just 3.8 million miles from the Sun’s surface, the closest any spacecraft has ever been. The images were taken using a specialized camera system known as the Wide-Field Imager for Solar Probe (WISPR).

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“These photos take us into the dynamic atmosphere of our closest star,” said Nicky Fox, a senior NASA science official. “We’re seeing where space weather begins, not through models, but with our own eyes.”

What the images reveal

The images reveal powerful solar activity, including coronal mass ejections (CMEs), huge bursts of solar material, and magnetic fields. For the first time, scientists observed multiple CMEs colliding in high resolution.

“We’re watching CMEs pile up on each other,” said Angelos Vourlidas, a scientist at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, which built and operates the probe. “This helps us learn how they merge and how that affects space weather.”

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Such solar events can cause beautiful auroras on Earth, but they also pose risks to satellites, power grids, and even astronauts in space.

Closer to solving solar wind mysteries

The WISPR images also show the heliospheric current sheet, a region where the Sun’s magnetic field flips direction. Understanding this region is key to explaining the solar wind, a steady stream of charged particles from the Sun that affects the entire solar system.

“The solar wind, especially the slow stream, is still a mystery,” said Nour Rawafi, Parker’s project scientist. “But this probe is helping us get closer to the answers.”

Since its launch, the Parker Solar Probe has steadily broken its own distance records.

It first became the closest human-made object to the Sun in 2018. Each pass provides more insights into the Sun’s magnetic field, surface activity, and atmosphere.

Its next flyby is scheduled for September 15, 2025. Scientists hope it will unlock more clues about the origins and behavior of the Sun’s powerful outflows.