Nasa declares spacecraft 'safe' after record-breaking Sun approach

Nasa announced on Friday that its Parker Solar Probe is "safe" and functioning as expected after achieving the closest approach to the Sun ever made by a human-made object.

The spacecraft passed just 3.8 million miles (6.1 million km) from the solar surface on December 24, flying into the sun's outer atmosphere called the corona, on a mission to help scientists learn more about Earth's closest star.

During this closest approach — known as perihelion — mission teams lost direct contact with Parker, relying on a "beacon tone" this to confirm the spacecraft's status.

The agency said the operations team at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland received the signal, from the probe just before midnight on Thursday.

The spacecraft is expected to send detailed telemetry data about its status on January 1, Nasa added.

Moving at up to 430,000 mph (692,000 kph), the spacecraft endured temperatures of up to 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit (982 degrees Celsius), according to the Nasa website.

"This close-up study of the Sun allows Parker Solar Probe to take measurements that help scientists better understand how material in this region gets heated to millions of degrees, trace the origin of the solar wind (a continuous flow of material escaping the Sun), and discover how energetic particles are accelerated to near light speed," the agency added.

The Parker Solar Probe was launched in 2018 and has been gradually circling closer towards the sun, using flybys of Venus to gravitationally pull it into a tighter orbit with the sun.

This Christmas Eve flyby was the first of three record-setting close passes, with the next two — on March 22, 2025, and June 19, 2025 — both expected to bring Parker Solar Probe back to a similarly close distance from the Sun.

Additional input from AFP.