The Parker Solar Probe has already shattered the record of the closest a human-made object has gotten to the Sun and continues to break its own records. Now in 5 days, on Christmas Eve, it will pull off its closest flyby yet. The probe is going to go THROUGH plumes of plasma connected to the sun and will be close enough to pass through a solar eruption if one happens to take place.

According to NASA, it is "like a surfer diving under a crashing ocean wave."

The initial record of the closest human-made object to the Sun was 27 million miles away and with each pass, the probe has gotten closer and closer. This next one will come within 3.86 million miles of the solar surface! What I find craziest about this whole thing is how the back of the probe behind the headshield the temperature will only heat up to room temp! How wild is that?! We have figured out how to make something that can go through the Sun's plasma and it only heats up to room temp... it is just wild!

This is the probe's final orbit after using Venus several times over the years to get closer and closer to the Sun without using fuel. Each time it used Venus it led to monumental discoveries that have dramatically changed what we understand about our neighbor closer to the Sun. During this final orbit, the probe will run out of fuel which will cause it to flip around and plunge into the Sun but not before it sends us all sorts of new data that will likely take scientists years to fully digest and go through!