NASA's Parker Solar Probe flew through a plasma flare, specifically called a coronal mass ejection, bursting from the Sun and survived.
The cosmic dust that researchers were interested in can be found all over our solar system and originally came from comets, asteroids and planets, according to NASA.
Data from the Parker Probe, NASA reported, showed the CME pushing and clearing a path through a haze of cosmic dust "all the way out to about 6 million miles from the Sun — about one-sixth of the distance between the Sun and Mercury." But soon after, more dust in the solar system rushed in to fill that void.
The probe, which first launched in 2018, has already made a huge impact on scientific research. In 2021, by flying below the corona in order to test the limits of the probe's engineering — but most of all to gather important data on solar winds and the Sun's magnetic field.that showed the planet, which many scientists call Earth's twin, with intriguing land mass features such as plateaus, plains and continents.
Every bit from data gleaned from these flybys at Venus and close brushes with the Sun bring us a greater understanding of our home in the universe — and also shows off human engineering at its finest.