NASA’s Parker Solar Probe made its closest pass near the sun on December 24th. Parker Solar Probe was just 3.8 million miles above the sun’s surface, with a speed of 430,000 miles per hour. Scientists waited anxiously to hear from the probe, and they finally got a signal from Parker on December 26th confirming it had survived.

The probe was launched in 2018. It utilized Venus’s gravity to approach the sun with each orbit. And it has completed 21 successful flybys so far. Parker has a heat shield, protecting it from extreme temperatures from the sun. The heat shield can keep Parker’s sensitive instrument at 85 degrees Fahrenheit while the front of it faces the intense heat of the sun’s corona, which is millions of degrees hot.

The latest approach came during the sun’s peak activity, which is when the sun experiences more flares and plasma eruptions. Despite these risks, the mission continued in order to gain some valuable data. Scientists hope the latest information, arriving by New Year’s Day, will explain mysteries like why the sun’s outer atmosphere is much hotter than its surface, etc.

Parker still has two more scheduled flybys before its mission ends in September. However, NASA is considering extending the mission longer to gain more data through the sun’s following quiet phase.

Dr. Nour Rawafi, a scientist on the project, said, “This is a big moment for space exploration,” according to the New York Times. The scientific team will look forward to discovering anything new the probe might reveal about the sun and its mysterious behavior.