Early on the morning of Christmas Eve, we got closer to the sun than ever before.

We have been waiting for this moment since 1958.

On Christmas Eve of this year, we will be embracing a star.

I'm dreaming of that moment.

It's Tuesday, December 24th, and you're listening to Science Friday.

I'm SciFRI producer Rasha Iridi.

This morning, at around 6.40 a.m., NASA's Parker Solar Probe made its 22nd close approach

to the sun, and its nearest one yet. It swooped into just under 4 million

miles away from the sun's surface. We spoke with the program's project scientists last week to

learn more. Here's Iroflato. Since the probe was launched back in 2018, it has helped scientists

to better understand our closest star,

solve some of its mysteries about solar wind, high energy solar particles, the corona, and lots more.

And now scientists hope that this up-close and personal view will reveal even more about the energy source we all depend on for our existence.

Here to discuss is Dr. Nurowafi, the project scientist for NASA's Parker Solar Prob Mission

and astrophysicist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland.

Dr. Ruwafi, welcome to Science Friday.

Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure of talking to you.

Oh, it's our pleasure.

Let's talk about the Parker Solar Probe.

I know that on December 24th, it's going to set a record for the closest approach to the sun ever,

and we're talking just 3.8 million miles. And given that the Earth

is 93 million miles away, this is pretty darn close, is it not? It's extremely close. If you think of it,

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