In a historic milestone, a spacecraft has touched the sun for the first time.

The Parker Solar Probe achieved the feat in April, but scientists have only now confirmed it.

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What NASA hopes to discover from spacecraft that ‘touched’ the sun

The crossing is a triumph of innovation, but the probe wasnt launched to show off NASAs tech.

The spacecraft is searching for secrets about the sun, our solar system, and the entire universe.

The Parker Solar Probe was designed to transform our understanding of the sun.

As the Parker Solar Probe passed through the corona on encounter nine, the spacecraft flew by structures called coronal streamers. These structures can be seen as bright features moving upward in the upper images and angled downward in the lower row. Such a view is only possible because the spacecraft flew above and below the streamers inside the corona. Until now, streamers have only been seen from afar. They are visible from Earth during total solar eclipses.

Our sun is the only star that we can study up close.

Parkers observations of the orb could shed light on stars throughout the universe.

It may not discover aliens, but it could offer clues about life beyond our solar system.

NOTE: Spacecraft and Sun relative positions adjusted to better show instrument placement.

Story byThomas Macaulay

Thomas is the managing editor of TNW.

He leads our coverage of European tech and oversees our talented team of writers.

Away from work, he e(show all)Thomas is the managing editor of TNW.

As the Parker Solar Probe ventures closer to the Sun, it’s crossing into uncharted regimes and making new discoveries. This image represents Parker Solar Probe’s distances from the Sun for some of these milestones and discoveries.

He leads our coverage of European tech and oversees our talented team of writers.

Away from work, he enjoys playing chess (badly) and the guitar (even worse).

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