Sources: NBC
ISRO successfully launches the PSLV-XL rocket carrying the European Space Agency's PROBA-3 satellites from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, India, in a solar observatory mission to gather data about the Sun's atmosphere. 2024-12-5
India launches Aditya-L1, its first solar observation mission, to observe the solar corona, photosphere and chromosphere, and to study solar winds and solar flares and their effect on Earth and near-space weather. 2023-09-2
Scientists announce that NASA's "Parker Solar Probe" became the first ever spacecraft to enter the stellar corona of the Sun during a flyby in April. 2021-12-14
In a rare celestial event, Mercury passes directly between Earth and the Sun for five and a half hours. Mercury's next transit will be in 2032. 2019-11-11
NASA's "Parker Solar Probe" spacecraft becomes the closest ever sent to the sun, by passing 42.7 million km (26.6 million miles) from the sun's surface. The previous record was set in 1976 by the "Helios 2" spacecraft. Parker's elliptical orbit will eventually take it to within 6.1 million km (3.8 million miles) of the sun. 2018-10-30
NASA launches the "Parker Solar Probe", an unpiloted spacecraft designed to study the sun. 2018-08-12
Astronomers announce that 2014 UZ224 is the third most distant Solar System object known from our Sun, currently over 90 times the Earth's distance from the Sun (90.8 AU or 8.44 billion miles), after Eris (96.2 AU) and V774104 (~103 AU). 2016-10-11
At least part of Comet C-2012 S1 (also known as Comet Ison) emerged from behind the Sun's corona. 2013-11-29
NASA launches the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, a space probe to observe the Sun, from the US state of California. 2013-06-27
Astronomers using the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer telescope identify a Trojan asteroid, calling it "2010 TK 7 ", orbiting on the same path as the Earth around the Sun. The rock poses no danger to the Earth since it sits in a what is termed a gravitational "sweet spot". 2011-07-28