{"id":1949,"date":"2025-07-11T16:15:04","date_gmt":"2025-07-11T16:15:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/1949\/"},"modified":"2025-07-11T16:15:04","modified_gmt":"2025-07-11T16:15:04","slug":"behold-the-closest-images-of-the-sun-ever-taken","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/1949\/","title":{"rendered":"Behold the Closest Images of the Sun Ever Taken"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On Christmas Eve of last year, <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/mission\/parker-solar-probe\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NASA\u2019s Parker Solar Probe<\/a> made spaceflight history, <a href=\"https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/nasa-waits-with-bated-breath-for-signal-from-sun-exploring-spacecraft-2000543390\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">flying by the Sun at a record-setting distance<\/a> of just 3.8 million miles (6.12 million kilometers) from the solar surface.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>During its flyby, Parker snapped some amazing close-up images of the Sun, which NASA finally <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/science-research\/heliophysics\/nasas-parker-solar-probe-snaps-closest-ever-images-to-sun\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">released<\/a> to the public yesterday. The images, captured by the probe\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/parkersolarprobe.jhuapl.edu\/Spacecraft\/index.php#Instruments:~:text=Wide%2Dfield%20Imager%20for%20Solar%20PRobe%20(WISPR)\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Wide-Field Imager for Solar Probe<\/a>, or WISPR, present an extraordinary view of the Sun\u2019s corona, buffeted by raging solar winds.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>The snapshots capture a particularly intriguing moment for solar weather, in which not one but multiple coronal mass ejections (CMEs)\u2014large outbursts of charged particles that affect space weather\u2014are shown colliding at the periphery of the Sun\u2019s magnetic field.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn these images, we\u2019re seeing the CMEs basically piling up on top of one another,\u201d said Angelos Vourlidas, an engineer involved in WISPR at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, in a statement. \u201cWe\u2019re using this to figure out how the CMEs merge together, which can be important for space weather.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2000628140\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/parker-probe-0710.gif\" alt=\"Parker Probe 0710\" width=\"960\" height=\"1024\"\/>This video, made from images taken by Parker Solar Probe\u2019s WISPR instrument during its record-breaking flyby of the Sun on Dec. 25, 2024, shows the solar wind racing out from the Sun\u2019s outer atmosphere, the corona. Credit: NASA\/Johns Hopkins APL\/Naval Research Lab. <\/p>\n<p>The new images also provide a high-resolution view of solar wind activity, which NASA\u2019s scientists will likely use to refine their space weather prediction abilities.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cParker Solar Probe has once again transported us into the dynamic atmosphere of our closest star,\u201d said Nicky Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters, in the same statement. \u201cThis 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe data that will come down from the spacecraft will be fresh information about a place that we, as humanity, have never been,\u201d said Joe Westlake, director for NASA\u2019s Heliophysics Division, in a <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/science-research\/heliophysics\/nasas-parker-solar-probe-makes-history-with-closest-pass-to-sun\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">release<\/a> published after last year\u2019s flyby.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The next big milestone for Parker will happen later this year on September 15, when the probe performs another close pass. With each new orbit, Parker is steadily uncovering the many unknown characteristics of the Sun. Each flyby is a reminder of how much we still don\u2019t know about our own host star\u2014yet, at the same time, a reminder of how far we\u2019ve come. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Christmas Eve of last year, NASA\u2019s Parker Solar Probe made spaceflight history, flying by the Sun at&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1950,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[718,2521,79,2522,2523,193,953,2524],"class_list":{"0":"post-1949","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-nasa","9":"tag-parker-solar-probe","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-solar-flare","12":"tag-solar-storm","13":"tag-space","14":"tag-space-weather","15":"tag-the-sun"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}