The Parker Solar Probe, launched by NASA in 2018, ended 2024 by nearly touching the untouchable - the sun.

On Christmas Eve - December 24th - NASA's solar probe set a record by flying 3.86 million miles, or 6.1 million kilometres, from the sun. That approach made the small probe the first - and fastest - object created by humans to come that close to the sun, according to a report in Forbes magazine. Its speed was clocked at 430,000 miles per hour, the equivalent of 692,000 kilometres per hour.

Nicola Fox, NASA's associate administrator for science missions, said in a Christmas Eve video that the probe had achieved the very mission it was intended for with its unprecedented flight so close to the sun.

This solar pass came as the probe made its 22nd approach since its launch more than six years ago. The probe is well-shielded for this latest plunge into the sun: More than four years ago it entered one of the most powerful coronal mass ejections ever recorded, according to NASA.