NASA's sun-grazing spacecraft makes its ninth daring dive beyond our nearest star in a continuing search to unravel the secrets of how it works.Parker Solar Probe was at the closest distance to the sun in its latest flyby Monday, August 9, at 3:10 pm EDT (1910 GMT). The spacecraft was approximately 6.5 million miles (10.4 millions kilometers) from the surface of the sun. The probe was travelling at 330,000 mph (5532,000 km/h) at that point. The probe is currently studying the mechanisms by which the sun's atmosphere heats up to thousands of degrees higher than its surface.The spacecraft is getting closer to the sun and it is more poised to solve these mysteries. NASA released the following statement: "We are entering the critical phase in the Parker mission and our focus is on quite a number of things during this encounter," Nour El Raouafi (Parker Solar Probe project scientist at Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory), said.Related: NASA's Parker Solar Probe snaps stunning Venus photoContinue reading: What's in the Sun? Star tour from the inside-outRaouafi said that the spacecraft will be traveling through the acceleration zone due to the constant flow of charged particles making up the solar wind. "Solar activity is also increasing, which is promising to study larger-scale structures of the solar wind, such as coronal mass ejections and the energetic particles that are associated with them."The spacecraft's Monday flyby matched its records, which are also the records of humanity for closest approach to the sun as well as fastest-moving objects. Parker Solar Probe will soon be able to break both of these records again.The mission will fly past Venus five times in October. It will use the gravity of Venus to adjust its trajectory through space, and get closer to the sun. Two more Venus flybys are still on the agenda for the spacecraft before it completes its current mission in 2025. The spacecraft will then be flying just 3.8million miles (6.9 million km) from the sun's surface.The Parker Solar Probe team has certain expectations about what today's observations will reveal, but it is still possible that the scientists will discover another solar surprise.Raouafi stated, "You never know what you'll discover exploring this close to sun."Send Meghan Bartels an email at mbartels@space.com, or follow her Twitter @meghanbartels. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter @Spacedotcom
