NASA spacecraft survives closest-ever approach to Sun

• The undertaking is a remarkable feat of science and engineering, given the extreme heat (up to 1,800 F) and radiation the probe endured as it passed through the Sun's outer atmosphere.
• While 3.8 million miles may not seem like a particularly close encounter, the Earth is 93 million miles from the Sun.

State of play: The approach took place on Dec. 24, and NASA's missions operations team, based in Laurel, Maryland, received the signal just before midnight on Thursday, per a statement from NASA.

• The probe was moving about 430,000 mph.
• The aircraft is in good condition and operating normally.

What's next: The probe is expected to send data back on Jan. 1 to the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.

• The data will help scientists understand how material in that region gets heated to millions of degrees, trace the origin of solar wind, and discover how energetic particles are accelerated to near light speed.

Context: In 2018, Parker became the first spacecraft to enter the Sun's corona, the outermost part of the star's atmosphere that can be seen during a total solar eclipse.

• Other close passes helped scientists pinpoint the origins of structures in the solar wind and map the outer boundary of the Sun's atmosphere.

Go deeper: NASA probe to fly closer to the Sun than ever before