A NASA spacecraft, the Parker Solar Probe, has become the first to officially “touch” the sun, going through the outermost atmosphere known as the corona.
NASA announced the news in a Facebook post, saying the probe “sampled particles and magnetic fields” in the sun’s corona.
Though NASA announced the news Tuesday, the Parker Solar Probe actually flew the corona in April during the probe’s eighth close approach to the sun, The Associated Press reported. Since then, scientists have been working to get the data back and then confirm it.
NASA compared the achievement to the 1969 moon landing, saying “Just as landing on the Moon allowed scientists to understand how it was formed, touching the very stuff the Sun is made of will help scientists uncover critical information about our closest star and its influence on the solar system.”
The sun does not have a solid surface, so the information from the corona will give scientists the clearest picture of how solar outbursts impact life on Earth, The Associated Press reported.
The Sun’s corona is hotter than the surface of the star, at one million degrees Kelvin (1,800,000 degrees Fahrenheit), while the surface is around 6,000 Kelvin (10,340 degrees Fahrenheit), CNN reported.
At its closest, the probe was 8.1 million miles above the solar surface, but still within the sun’s corona. The Parker Solar Probe will keep moving closer to the sun, with its final orbit in 2025, The Associated Press reported.