NASA's Parker Solar Probe will reach its closest-ever point to the sun on Christmas Eve

Artist’s concept of the Parker Solar Probe spacecraft approaching the sun. Launching in 2018, Parker Solar Probe will provide new data on solar activity and make critical contributions to our ability to forecast major space-weather events that impact life on Earth.

On Christmas Eve, NASA's Parker Solar Probe will come closer than ever before to "touching the sun," getting more than eight times closer than Mercury does to our home star. It will also smash its own speed record, becoming the fastest human-made object when it zooms past our home star.

While the probe will make a few more final flybys in the next 12 months, it is unlikely to get much closer than it will on Tuesday.