This week, on Christmas Eve, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe made the closest recorded approach to the sun – 3.8 billion miles above the yellow dwarf star’s surface. Two days later, a beacon tone confirmed it made the trip safely.

NASA launched the Parker Solar Probe. Now, six and a half years later, the probe has traveled about 90 million miles to get closer to the sun than any man-made object in history. Here's how the mission data will help NASA.

NASA said on Friday that its Parker Solar Probe was "safe" and operating normally after successfully completing the closest-ever approach to the sun by any human-made object. The spacecraft passed 6.1 million kilometers from the solar surface on Tuesday,