                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                               2025 August 11

                      Closest Ever Images Near the Sun
     Video Credit: NASA, JHUAPL, Naval Research Lab, Parker Solar Probe

   Explanation: Everybody sees the Sun. Nobody's been there. Starting in
   2018, though, NASA launched the robotic Parker Solar Probe (PSP) to
   investigate regions near to the Sun for the first time. The featured
   time-lapse video shows the view looking sideways from behind PSP's Sun
   shield in December during the closest approach of any human-made
   spacecraft to the Sun, looping down to only about five solar diameters
   above the Sun's hot surface. The PSP's Wide Field Imager for Solar
   Probe (WISPR) cameras took these images over seven hours, but they are
   digitally compressed here into about 5 seconds. The solar corona,
   including colliding coronal mass ejections (CMEs), is visible here in
   unprecedented detail, with stars passing far in the background. The Sun
   is not only Earth's dominant energy source, but its variable solar wind
   also compresses Earth's atmosphere, triggers auroras, affects power
   grids, and can even damage orbiting communication satellites.

                        Tomorrow's picture: sky flow
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
                  NASA Web Privacy, Accessibility, Notices;
                      A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
                           NASA Science Activation
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

