NASA achieves historic milestone with closest Sun approach

A supermassive black hole - At the center of the spiral galaxy NGC 4845, located over 65 million light-years away in the constellation of Virgo (The Virgin) is shown in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image released on January 8, 2016. The galaxy's orientation clearly reveals the galaxy's striking spiral structure: a flat and dust-mottled disc surrounding a bright galactic bulge. NGC 4845's glowing center hosts a gigantic version of a black hole, known as a supermassive black hole.

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In a galaxy 50 million light-years away... - The NGC 4536 galaxy is a hub of extreme star formation situated in the constellation of Virgo.

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What 17,500 mph looks like - Astronauts on the ISS captured star trails and blurred terrestrial lights in this time exposure as they sailed around planet Earth.

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The Tarantula Nebula - This cluster contains hundreds of young blue stars, including the most massive star to ever be detected in the universe as of yet.

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Jupiter's Northern Lights - High-energy particles on the pole of Jupiter form a brilliant collection of stunning Auroras in this NASA composite.

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Like a spaceship twisting through the galaxy on warp speed - NGC 4394, a barred spiral galaxy situated about 55 million light-years from Earth, has bright spiral arms peppered with young blue stars, dark cosmic dust, and bright, fuzzy regions of star formations.

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Life on Mars - Landscapes associated with gullies and ridges that look like terrestrial moraines suggest that these deep craters on Mars may be rich with ice!

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Dunes on Mars - The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows the formation of Dunes on the wildly variant planet surface.

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Mars is edgy - The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter also captured rugged cliff edges on the planet, making for a stunning visual texture.

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A chance to look directly at the sun! - NASA's Solar and Terrestrial Relations Observatory Ahead collects images in several wavelengths of light that are invisible to the human eye, so you can look at the sun.

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Stormy surface - In a composite image assembled from 12 photographs, Saturn's huge northern storm twists along its surface in a gorgeous display.

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Hurricane Irma from above - The record Category 5 storm was captured driving toward Florida, passing the eastern end of Cuba. It looks much more beautiful and calm from space!

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Superstar - The super star cluster Westerlund 1 is home to one of the largest stars ever discovered—a red supergiant with a radius over 1500x that of our Sun!

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Don't forget about Pluto! - NASA's New Horizons spacecraft was 476,000 mi from Pluto's surface when it took this photo in 2015.

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Subtropical storms from space - The Alberto storm is pictured closing in on the Florida Panhandle in May 2018.

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The farthest individual star ever seen - The Hubble Space Telescope caught a blue supergiant star called Icarus, the farthest star humans have yet to see. The panels show the star becoming brighter as the years progress.

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Weird little things seen on Earth - The International Space Station's view of solar evaporation ponds outside the city of Moab, UT, reveals stunning and bizarre colors.

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Dwarf galaxy - NASA captured an incredibly picturesque image of the dwarf galaxy named NGC 5949.

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Fires as seen from outer space - Taken in July 2018, this satellite photo shows light from the County Fire along with the smoke streaming southwest toward San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean.

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A cosmic sparkling ring - The heart of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 1097 is surrounded by a bright star-forming ring. Remember that when you're waiting in traffic this week.

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Views from the ISS - NASA astronaut Scott Kelly spent an incredible 520 days in space, but at least he had one of the best seats in the galaxy.

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What outer space plasma looks like - NASA released an artist's depiction of a black hole surrounded by a disk of orbital material, and with a jet of hot gas flowing into it, called plasma!

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You may recognize this from 'The Martian' - A crewed mission written into the best-selling novel and Hollywood film lands in this region of Mars called the Acidalia Planitia.

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Us, as seen from Saturn -

The Cassini spacecraft took a rare picture of the pale blue dot from beneath Saturn's rings. Everything seems less stressful when you look at it from Saturn.

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Saturn's summer sunlight - The Cassini spacecraft provided one of the last looks at Saturn in 2016, after having arrived in 2004.

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A two-hour long solar flare - You can't see it but the sun's surface is actually spitting and spouting solar flares and coronal ejections, like this two-hour long activity captured from 2017.

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Twisted cosmic knot - What you're seeing is the result of a collision between two galaxies, causing clouds of gas to compress and stir, resulting in the formation of a star!

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An oldie but a goodie - NASA's Galileo spacecraft captured this image of Jupiter's moon, Europa, in the late '90s.

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ET goes home - The Orbital ATK's Cygnus spacecraft was successfully captured by the ISS's Canadarm2, bringing more than 7,600 lbs (3,447 kg) of research and supplies with it.

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The death of a low-mass star - The Calabash Nebula is the result of a star transforming from a red giant to a planetary nebula, blowing gas and dust into space in a breathtaking display.

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The Great Red Spot - Jupiter's distinguishing feature was captured at a distance of 10,274 mi (16,534 km) from the tops of the clouds of the planet.

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Dione - The Cassini spacecraft captured Saturn's moon Dione and all her pores. She wasn't ready for the photo!

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The Crab Nebula - This stunning composite image of a supernova remnant was put together using data from five telescopes and almost the entire breadth of the electromagnetic spectrum.

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One of 16 sunrises the ISS sees in a day - Each one is special, particularly because each one means more solar charge for the station!

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The Nili Fossae region on Mars - One of the most colorful regions of the planet is located on the northwest rim of the Isidis impact basin. Prime real estate for the humans planning to move!

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Distance makes the heart grow fonder - Earth's gorgeous Aurora borealis display only gets better from space. If you want to learn more about this magical natural phenomenon, click here.

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Before the Grand Finale - The Cassini spacecraft lingers above Saturn's northern hemisphere just before making its final dive.

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Meet Janus, Pandora, Enceladus, Rhea, and Mimas - The quintet of Saturn's moons!

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In a galaxy 50 million light-years away... - The NGC 4536 galaxy is a hub of extreme star formation situated in the constellation of Virgo.

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What 17,500 mph looks like - Astronauts on the ISS captured star trails and blurred terrestrial lights in this time exposure as they sailed around planet Earth.

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The Tarantula Nebula - This cluster contains hundreds of young blue stars, including the most massive star to ever be detected in the universe as of yet.

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Jupiter's Northern Lights - High-energy particles on the pole of Jupiter form a brilliant collection of stunning Auroras in this NASA composite.

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Life on Mars - Landscapes associated with gullies and ridges that look like terrestrial moraines suggest that these deep craters on Mars may be rich with ice!

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Dunes on Mars - The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows the formation of Dunes on the wildly variant planet surface.

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Mars is edgy - The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter also captured rugged cliff edges on the planet, making for a stunning visual texture.

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Stormy surface - In a composite image assembled from 12 photographs, Saturn's huge northern storm twists along its surface in a gorgeous display.

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Hurricane Irma from above - The record Category 5 storm was captured driving toward Florida, passing the eastern end of Cuba. It looks much more beautiful and calm from space!

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Superstar - The super star cluster Westerlund 1 is home to one of the largest stars ever discovered—a red supergiant with a radius over 1500x that of our Sun!

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Don't forget about Pluto! - NASA's New Horizons spacecraft was 476,000 mi from Pluto's surface when it took this photo in 2015.

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Subtropical storms from space - The Alberto storm is pictured closing in on the Florida Panhandle in May 2018.

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Weird little things seen on Earth - The International Space Station's view of solar evaporation ponds outside the city of Moab, UT, reveals stunning and bizarre colors.

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Dwarf galaxy - NASA captured an incredibly picturesque image of the dwarf galaxy named NGC 5949.

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Fires as seen from outer space - Taken in July 2018, this satellite photo shows light from the County Fire along with the smoke streaming southwest toward San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean.

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A cosmic sparkling ring - The heart of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 1097 is surrounded by a bright star-forming ring. Remember that when you're waiting in traffic this week.

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Views from the ISS - NASA astronaut Scott Kelly spent an incredible 520 days in space, but at least he had one of the best seats in the galaxy.

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What outer space plasma looks like - NASA released an artist's depiction of a black hole surrounded by a disk of orbital material, and with a jet of hot gas flowing into it, called plasma!

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You may recognize this from 'The Martian' - A crewed mission written into the best-selling novel and Hollywood film lands in this region of Mars called the Acidalia Planitia.

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Us, as seen from Saturn -

The Cassini spacecraft took a rare picture of the pale blue dot from beneath Saturn's rings. Everything seems less stressful when you look at it from Saturn.

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NASA achieves historic milestone with closest Sun approach

The probe came within 3.8 million miles (6.1 million km) of the Sun

27/12/24 | StarsInsider

LIFESTYLE Space

In our day-to-day lives, it's easy to forget that our planet isn't the only one out there. Indeed, NASA has been hard at work exploring the far reaches of our own galaxy, as well as uncovering a tiny fraction of the universe's innumerable wonders.

And NASA has now reached a new milestone, as a spacecraft made history by surviving the closest-ever approach to the Sun. Scientists received a signal from the Parker Solar Probe late Thursday night (12 am EST) after days of silence during its scorching fly-by. On Christmas Eve, it ventured into the Sun’s outer atmosphere, enduring extreme heat and radiation to aid scientists in studying the Sun’s behavior.

NASA reported the probe was safe and operating normally after coming within 3.8 million miles (6.1 million km) of the Sun’s surface. “This close-up study 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.”

Launched in 2018, the Parker Solar Probe embarked on a mission to explore the center of our solar system. Before its record-breaking Christmas Eve approach, the probe had already completed 21 close passes by the Sun, each bringing it closer than before.

Whether you're looking to be reminded of the vastness of existence, or you just want to see some more stunning extraterrestrial photography, check out this gallery.