The Parker Solar Probe takes its first up-close look at the sun
The spacecraft broke speed and distance records on its initial solar flyby
![sun's plasma](https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/121218_LG_solar-probe_feat.jpg?fit=860%2C460&ssl=1)
FIRST LOOK One of the first images NASA’s Parker Solar Probe took during its close encounter with the sun shows a streamer of plasma in the outer solar atmosphere, or corona. The probe took this image November 8 at a distance of about 27 million kilometers from the sun’s surface. The bright dot below the streamer is Mercury.
Parker Solar Probe/NASA and Naval Research Laboratory