The Parker Solar Probe survived two approaches to the sun and will make two more in 2025

NASA said on Friday it had received a signal from the Parker Solar Probe confirming that the spacecraft had survived its first solar flyby. The path covered 3.8 million kilometers from the surface, passing through the interior of the sun and allowing the collection of data never before done near the star. A few million may seem like a very long distance, but to put things into perspective, NASA he explains: “If the Sun were reduced by the distance between the sun and the Earth to the size of a football field, the Parker Solar Probe would be only four yards from the end point.”

This mass movement moves closer to the sun about every three months. It will also make two close passes in 2025, on March 22 and June 19. The probe is expected to send its closest approach soon, once it is in a good position to do so. “The information that will come down to space will be new information about places that we, as humans, have never been,” said Joe Westlake, director of the Heliophysics Division at NASA headquarters. “It’s an amazing thing.”