Parker Solar Probe sends back photos from the sun's outer atmosphere

WBUR | By Here & Now Newsroom

Published July 23, 2025 at 9:02 AM PDT

This image made available by NASA shows an artist's rendering of the Parker Solar Probe approaching the Sun. It's designed to take solar punishment like never before, thanks to its revolutionary heat shield that's capable of withstanding 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit (1,370 degrees Celsius). (Steve Gribben/Johns Hopkins APL/NASA via AP)

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe passed into the outer atmosphere of the sun and took incredible images of the sun’s corona.

Here & Now‘s Scott Tong speaks with Nour Rawafi, astrophysicist and Parker Solar Probe project scientist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, about what these images reveal about the sun and solar winds, as well as what scientists are hoping to learn from the solar probe.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

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