NASA's Parker Solar Probe will revolutionize our understanding of the Sun, our closest star. The spacecraft will use seven Venus flybys and 24 orbits over nearly seven years to gradually reduce its orbit around the Sun. The spacecraft will come close to 4 percent of the distance from the Sun to the Earth, and closer to the Sun's surface than any spacecraft before it.
The spacecraft will fly into part of the Sun's atmosphere, known as the corona, for the first time. The spacecraft will use four instrument suites designed to study electric and magnetic fields, plasma, and energetic particles, as well as image the solar wind. The mission will trace how energy moves through the solar corona and explore what accelerates the solar wind and solar energetic particles, enabling critical contributions to our ability to forecast changes in Earth's space environment that impact life and technology on our planet.