Nasa have made history after their Parker Solar aircraft survived the closest-ever approach to the Sun.
The aircraft has spent the last few days approximately 3.8 million miles from the sun – the closest any aircraft has come to the burning star.
Scientists received a signal just before midnight on Thursday from the Parker Solar Probe which had been out of communication for multiple days.
Nasa workers have since confirmed that the journey was ‘safe’ and the aircraft is undamaged and operating normally.
Words on the Nasa website state that scientists hope the historic journey will help them better understand how the Sun reaches heats of millions of degrees.
The website read: ‘This close-up 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.’
Dr Nicola Fox, Nasa’s head of science, told BBC News: ‘For centuries, people have studied the Sun, but you don’t experience the atmosphere of a place until you actually go (and) visit it.
‘And so we can’t really experience the atmosphere of our star unless we fly through it.’
‘We are 93 million miles away from the Sun, so if I put the Sun and the Earth one metre apart, Parker Solar Probe is 4cm from the Sun – so that’s close.’
The Parker Solar Probe began in 2018, with the aircraft travelling at 430,000mph towards the Sun.
Prior to Thursday night, it had moved past the Sun 21 times, but had never come closer than 3.8 million miles away.
Scientists are ‘pleased’ that the aircraft has survived such a probe.
Dr Fox added: ‘I will worry about the spacecraft. But we really have designed it to withstand all of these brutal, brutal conditions. It’s a tough, tough little spacecraft.’
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