The Solar Orbiter space probe has come closer to the sun than any other spacecraft before it, reaching the nearest point to the sun so far on its two-year journey through space.
Solar Orbiter was 48 million kilometres from the sun, European space agency ESA said on Saturday, less than a third of the distance between Earth and the sun.
Solar Orbiter was launched in February 2020, and has already flown through the tail of a comet, flown by Venus and captured the most detailed photographs of the sun ever taken.
The joint ESA-NASA mission cost around $1.7 billion. The spacecraft, which weighs in at 1.8 tonnes, is carrying 10 scientific instruments that researchers hope will give them significant new insights into the sun and its magnetic field.
Back in June 2020, Solar Orbiter flew to within 77 million kilometres of the sun, and captured images of mysterious so-called "campfires" - or miniature solar flares - on the star's surface.
The spacecraft's current, highly elliptical orbit is not expected to change much in the coming three years. It will reach its closest point to the sun approximately every six months.
During its next perihelion pass, scheduled for October, the probe is due to fly to within 42 million kilometres of the sun.
