The space Parker Solar Probe, developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa), flew inside the solar corona, the outermost part of the star, sampling particles and magnetic fields. This is a milestone for the study of the Sun and a fact of historical significance. The project started in 2009. The launch had been carried out on August 12th, 2018. The aims of the mission are to carefully analyze this star and its stellar wind. 

"For the first time in history, a spacecraft has touched the Sun. Nasa's Solar Parker probe flew through the outermost part of the Sun's atmosphere, the corona, and sampled particles and magnetic fields", has confirmed Nasa. 

The cost of the project was 1.5 billion dollars. The probe was built by the John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and named in memory of physicist Eugene Parker, who first theorized the presence of the solar wind. Its mission will last 7 years, during which the spacecraft will get even closer to the Sun, to a distance of less than 6 million kilometers from the surface.