While the world celebrates Christmas, NASA's Parker Solar Probe will bear the heat from the Sun. It is set for another close solar flyby at 5:23 pm IST on December 24 and according to NASA, it is entering 'uncharted territory.'

The upcoming flyby with be Parker's closest-ever flight around the Sun, with a maximum distance being just 6.1 million kilometres.

On December 21, NASA said that it made the last contact with the probe before its flyby. Communications will be reestablished on December 27 when Parker will reconnect to update about its health post the flyby.

"No human-made object has ever passed this close to a star, so Parker will truly be returning data from uncharted territory" Nick Pinkine, Parker Solar Probe mission operations manager at John Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), said in a statement. "We're excited to hear back from the spacecraft when it swings back around the Sun."

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The Parker probe made its closest approach to the Sun in 2021 when it flew through the Sun's corona - its outermost atmospheric layer - from a distance of just about 6.5 million kilometres.

About the next flyby, Arik Posner, Parker Solar Probe program scientist at NASA said, "This is one example of NASA's bold missions, doing something that no one else has ever done before to answer longstanding questions about our universe."

Launched in August 2018, the Parker probe is designed to last seven years and it will make 24 orbits around the Sun. NASA says the mission objective is to help scientists better understand the Sun's impact on Earth. The data gathered by Parker will also be key to understanding and forecasting space weather.

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(Image: NASA)