Pie slice view showing the Sun 10 different wavelengths of life. It appears as a colorful rainbow spectrum.
Parker Solar Probe artistic rendering flying near the Sun.
Lunar Environment Heliophysics X-ray Imager (LEXI) TO19D CLPS payload

Missions to the Sun

NASA and other international space agencies monitor the Sun 24/7 with a fleet of solar observatories, studying everything from the Sun’s atmosphere to its surface.
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe is studying our star from closer than any previous spacecraft. On Dec. 14, 2021, NASA announced that Parker had flown through the Sun’s upper atmosphere – the corona – the first time in history that a spacecraft had touched the Sun.
Other active spacecraft monitoring the Sun include: Solar Orbiter, SOHO, ACE, IRIS, WIND, Hinode, the Solar Dynamics Observatory, and STEREO.

Heliophysics Missions and Programs

Location

Center of the Solar System

First solar mission

March 25, 1951 (Explorer 10)

Active missions

19

Future Missions

13

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