In a historic milestone for space exploration, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has delivered the closest-ever images of the Sun — a blistering 3.8 million miles from its roiling surface. The new images showcase turbulent solar winds and merging eruptions with unprecedented clarity.
These images look simply amazing, but there’s more to it than a close-up of the sun. Scientists hope the data they gather will refine their understanding of how the Sun shapes space weather and, by extension, life on Earth. These insights will also help us protect our space infrastructure, satellites most of all.
“This 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,” said Nicky Fox, NASA’s science mission director.
Launched in 2018, the Parker Solar Probe is designed to do the unthinkable: “touch the Sun.” Named after physicist Eugene Parker, who first theorized the solar wind in 1958, the spacecraft carries a suite of instruments shielded by cutting-edge thermal protection as it flies through the Sun’s outer atmosphere (the corona) at record-breaking speeds of 430,000 miles per hour. Everything about this mission pushes science to its very edge.
The images were snapped during Parker’s December 24, 2024 flyby, but were released only a few days ago.
A Front-Row Seat to the Sun’s Explosive Fury
From the Earth’s surface, the Sun seems serene. But zoom in just a little (or in this case, a lot) and it becomes a dynamic, sometimes violent, plasma machine.
The Parker Solar Probe’s latest data includes the clearest images yet of the solar wind, the continuous stream of charged particles that blasts out of the corona. These particles can travel at over a million miles per hour, sometimes smashing into Earth’s magnetic field and disrupting satellites, power grids, and communication networks.
Scientists have long known about these solar outflows. What they didn’t have — until now — is a front-row seat to see them at the moment they’re born.
One of the striking discoveries is the structure of the heliospheric current sheet, a vast, spiraling boundary where the Sun’s magnetic field flips direction. From Earth, this sheet looks like a faint beam of light. But up close, the Parker images revealed a swirling “twirling skirt” of magnetic boundaries, much more complex than previously thought.
“As Earth orbits the sun, it dips in and out of the undulating current sheet. On one side the sun’s magnetic field points north (toward the Sun), on the other side it points south (away from the Sun). South-pointing solar magnetic fields tend to cancel Earth’s own magnetic field. Solar wind energy can then penetrate the local space around our planet and fuel geomagnetic storms,” explains NASA.
Adding to the drama, the spacecraft witnessed a rare solar phenomenon in action: three coronal mass ejections (CMEs) exploding from the Sun in rapid succession and then combining into a single, more powerful wave.
“These successive events coming from the sun actually are the biggest threat to Earth in terms of space weather,” said Nour Rawafi, project scientist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. “It’s basically giving you a front seat to see that happening.”
When one eruption clears the way, others can follow more quickly and with greater impact, like a convoy on a cleared highway. That convergence can trigger intense geomagnetic storms when they hit Earth.
Probing the Origins of the Solar Wind
For decades, one of the Sun’s greatest mysteries has been how the solar wind — especially its slower, denser component — is generated and escapes the Sun’s powerful gravity.
Thanks to Parker’s instruments, scientists are now identifying the source regions of these winds more precisely. They discovered that magnetic funnels on the Sun’s surface seem to produce switchbacks. These are zigzagging magnetic field lines that flip direction like a coiled spring. Switchbacks are not rare. They’re common, and they might explain how the fast solar wind gets its speed.
Closer to the Sun, the corona no longer appears smooth and static but chaotic and irregular. The probe found that even the boundary of the corona is warped and unpredictable, further complicating the question of how solar material manages to escape.
“The big unknown has been: how is the solar wind generated, and how does it manage to escape the Sun’s immense gravitational pull?” said Rawafi. “With Parker Solar Probe, we’re closer than ever to uncovering their origins and how they evolve.”
In May 2024, a similar multi-eruption event knocked out communications for commercial satellites and generated auroras visible far from the poles. With more spacecraft and crewed missions heading into space, forecasting these disruptions becomes mission-critical.
“Understanding the background solar wind will help us to predict when these events are going to arrive to Earth, how strong are they going to be and what is the likely activity that will drive in the Earth’s atmosphere,” Rawafi explained.
A Mission Still Unfolding
Each orbit brings the Parker Solar Probe closer to the Sun. And each pass returns data that deepens our grasp of the star that governs our solar system.
The spacecraft, still healthy and operational, is expected to make its next daring dive in September 2025. It will again approach within 3.8 million miles of the Sun’s surface, potentially capturing even higher-resolution images and data.
And while we’ve studied the Sun for centuries through eclipses, satellites, and mathematical models, this mission marks a turning point.
“We are witnessing where space weather threats to Earth begin, with our eyes, not just with models,” said NASA’s Nicky Fox.
And for the first time, we’re close enough to truly listen.
