NASA satellite 'touches the Sun'

History has been made after a NASA satellite entered the Sun’s atmosphere for the first time, uncovering secrets of our solar system's central star.

The Parker Solar Probe entered the Sun’s upper atmosphere, known as the corona, sampling particles and magnetic fields while there.

It is hoped that just as with landing on the Moon, entering the Sun’s corona will help answer long-held questions and uncover new discoveries about the star.

Parker Solar Probe launched in 2018 with the task of getting closer to the Sun than ever before. The superheated atmosphere extends outwards from the solar surface to a point where gravity is too weak to contain it.

This is known as the Alfvén critical surface, the point where the solar atmosphere ends and solar winds begin.

Until this recent visit, the exact point of the Alfvén crucial surface was only theorised to lay somewhere between 4.3 to 8.6 million miles from the Sun. On April 28, NASA’s probe finally revealed that the point rests 8.1 million miles above the surface.

In uncovering this mystery scientists noticed something new. While inside the solar atmosphere, the probe passed in and out of the corona multiple times. Indicating that the Alfvén crucial surface is not spherical but contains spikes and valleys.

The probe eventually reached as close as 3.83 million miles above the solar surface, encountering pseudostreamers rising above the Sun’s surface which can be seen during solar eclipses.

Parker Solar Probe will now continue to visit the Sun’s solar atmosphere for years to come as part of NASA’s Living with a Star program which aims to uncover aspects of the Sun-Earth system directly affecting life and society.