The heart of our solar system is the Sun. It is a huge object, though not a particularly big star. It is 865,000 miles in diameter, which is huge compared to Earth's diameter of about 8,000 miles.

It’s approximately 10,000 degrees on the surface and 27 million degrees at its core. At that temperature, the Sun is currently fusing hydrogen into helium, which produces the tremendous energy pouring out of the Sun.

Parker Solar Probe was the most recent spacecraft sent to study the Sun. It passed by the Sun 24 times, getting closer and faster each time. It passed within 4 million miles of the Sun—closer than any spacecraft before it.

By the end, it had become the fastest spacecraft we have ever launched, traveling at over 400,000 miles per hour.

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