(Sky News): Today, the sun is predicted to be fairly close to the Parker Solar Probe, the fastest artificial object. This daring approach is being used to examine the sun's surface and atmosphere at a speed of an incredible 435,000 mph.

The probe's current pace would allow it to reach New York from London in around 29 seconds. As it gets closer, the spacecraft accelerates due to the sun's strong gravitational pull, which gives it its amazing speed.

On this 22nd orbit, the probe will travel just 3.8 million miles above the sun's surface and enter the corona, the sun's extremely heated outer atmosphere. During a total solar eclipse, this layer can be seen as bright, hazy features from Earth.

Temperatures as high as 1,400°C are predicted for the front of the Parker Solar Probe. Mission specialists will anxiously await the spacecraft's contact back to Earth on December 27 to verify its safety.

The mission's design and navigation manager, Yanping Guo, compared the anxious wait to keep an eye on a priceless work of art. "It’s like a baby to me," she added, expressing hope that despite the harsh environment of the probe, useful data would be obtained.

The probe has been spiraling closer to the sun with each orbit since it was launched in August 2018. Its closest approach is represented by its current course, which gives researchers a unique chance to gather previously unheard-of data on the sun.

Important discoveries from a previous orbit included the discovery that solar wind may reach speeds of a million miles per hour due to abrupt changes in the magnetic field. Researchers at Imperial College London examined these results to get insight into how the solar wind contributes to Earth's auroras.

Tim Horbury, a professor, stressed the usefulness of researching the solar wind. He added that knowledge of the solar wind's origins could help forecast its effects on Earth. "The radiation can negatively impact astronauts, satellites, and even power grids," he said.

The sun's corona, which can reach temperatures of over a million degrees Celsius while the surface only reaches roughly 6,000°C, is another riddle that scientists are trying to solve. Researchers have been perplexed by this discrepancy for decades.

The project, which was first conceived in 1958, was only made possible in the twenty-first century by improvements in spacecraft engineering, including the creation of a strong heat shield. Professor Horbury remarked, "The engineering achievement is equally remarkable as the science," when he considered the many years it took to accomplish this lofty goal.