Nasa makes history with closest-ever approach to Sun (BBC)

[Jason]

On December 27, 2024, the Parker Solar probe made its closest approach to the sun at 3.8 million km. It doesn't sound that close, but look at it this way. The Sun is 1.4 million km in diameter so the probe was less than three solar sizes away.

On Christmas Eve it entered the Sun's outer atmosphere, the corona. Bizarrely, the corona is hotter than the surface of the sun reaching many millions of degrees. The probe survived despite its outside temperature reaching 980 C. It was moving at a speed of 692,000 km/h. That's like going from London to New York in less than 30 seconds.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgrwdxpljyxo