NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has given humanity its closest glimpse yet into the Sun’s fiery outer atmosphere, and it’s every bit as dramatic as you’d expect.

In December 2024, the probe performed a record-breaking dive just 3.8 million miles from the solar surface, flying through the Sun’s corona, the superheated outermost layer of its atmosphere.

It captured stunning, high-resolution images and data that are a real treasure trove for solar scientists.

The Sun, up close and personal

Equipped with a suite of high-tech instruments, including the Wide-Field Imager for Solar Probe (WISPR), Parker Solar Probe captured never-before-seen details of the Sun’s corona and the mysterious solar wind.

The solar wind is a constant stream of charged particles that flows from the Sun and sweeps across the entire Solar System.

Space weather is the term given to the Sun’s influence on the bodies of the Solar System including Earth, and can affect our planet’s telecommunications, GPS and satellites.

It can even be harmful to astronauts working in space, but also provides us with magnificent aurora displays.

Clearly, understanding more about the solar wind and space weather is a vital strand of solar science.

Video made from images taken by Parker Solar Probe’s WISPR instrument during its flyby of the Sun on 25 December 2024. Video shows the solar wind racing out from the Sun’s outer atmosphere, the corona. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Naval Research Lab

“Parker Solar Probe has once again transported us into the dynamic atmosphere of our closest star,” says Nicky Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

“We are witnessing where space weather threats to Earth begin, with our eyes, not just with models.

“This new data will help us vastly improve our space weather predictions to ensure the safety of our astronauts and the protection of our technology here on Earth and throughout the Solar System.”

Three separate coronal mass ejections (marked in yellow) captured by the Parker Solar Probe, 24 December 2024. Credit: NASA

Capturing the chaos of coronal mass ejections

Among the most remarkable images the Parker Solar Probe captured during this close fly-by of our Sun are views of multiple coronal mass ejections.

These are huge explosions of charged particles and a key driver of space weather, and Parker has imaged them for the first time in high resolution.

“In these images, we’re seeing the coronal mass ejections basically piling up on top of one another,” says Angelos Vourlidas, WISPR instrument scientist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.

“We’re using this to figure out how the coronal mass ejections merge together, which can be important for space weather.”

When coronal mass ejections collide, they can change direction, merge magnetic fields and accelerate energetic particles. All of which can make them more dangerous.

For scientists tasked with predicting and mitigating space weather effects, that makes Parker’s observations a potential game-changer.

The Sun’s corona in extreme detail, captured by the Parker Solar Probe, 24 December 2024. Credit: NASA

Zooming in on the solar wind’s birthplace

The solar wind was first theorised in 1958 by Eugene Parker, the physicist after whom the probe is named.

While previous spacecraft like Helios and Ulysses helped map the solar wind from afar, Parker Solar Probe is the first to fly straight through its source.

What the spacecraft found surprised even seasoned researchers.

Rather than a smooth breeze, the solar wind near the Sun is a wild, turbulent mess. Among the strangest features observed are switchbacks, magnetic field lines that zigzag sharply.

When the spacecraft detected them at 14.7 million miles from the Sun, scientists were amazed.

Now, with Parker’s even closer approach, researchers have pinpointed their origins to magnetic ‘funnels’ on the solar surface.

Scientists believe these switchbacks may be a key mechanism behind the fast solar wind, which zooms through space at over 400 miles per second.

That’s helping solve a mystery that’s puzzled solar physicists for half a century.

The Sun’s corona in extreme detail, captured by the Parker Solar Probe, 24 December 2024. Credit: NASA

Mystery of the slow solar wind

Not all solar wind is fast and furious.

The slow solar wind — which moves at a more leisurely 220 miles per second — remains one of the biggest mysteries in heliophysics.

It’s denser, more variable and just as important, especially since it can interact with fast solar wind and trigger moderate space weather storms.

It appears there are two different kinds of slow solar wind.

The first, called Alfvénic, shows small magnetic fluctuations — like switchbacks. The second, non-Alfvénic, doesn’t.

Thanks to Parker Solar Probe’s close flybys, scientists have now confirmed that both types do indeed exist and are gathering clues about where they originate.

Early evidence suggests non-Alfvénic slow wind may come from ‘helmet streamers’, vast, arching loops of solar material.

While Alfvénic slow wind might be linked to coronal holes: dark, cooler patches in the Sun’s atmosphere.

“We don’t have a final consensus yet, but we have a whole lot of new intriguing data,” said Adam Szabo, Parker Solar Probe mission scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Parker Solar Probe’s view of the Heliospheric Current Sheet (marked in yellow), which is where the solar wind’s magnetic field changes direction from north to south. Captured 24 December 2024. Credit: NASA

Even closer encounters ahead

Parker Solar Probe isn’t done yet. It will continue making ever-closer passes through the Sun’s corona over the next year, including its next close encounter on 15 September 15, 2025.

With each swoop, the probe is gathering unprecedented data about how the Sun works and, by extension, how it affects every planet in our Solar System, including Earth.

“The big unknown has been: how is the solar wind generated, and how does it manage to escape the Sun’s immense gravitational pull?” says Nour Rawafi, project scientist for Parker Solar Probe at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.

“Understanding this continuous flow of particles, particularly the slow solar wind, is a major challenge, especially given the diversity in the properties of these streams. But with Parker Solar Probe, we’re closer than ever to uncovering their origins and how they evolve.”