On Christmas Eve, NASA's Parker Solar Probe will swoop within 3.8 million miles (6.1 million kilometers) of the sun's surface at a whopping 430,000 mph (690,000 kph), breaking its own records for speed and closest approach to our star.
The spacecraft, roughly the size of a small car, completed its final swing past Venus last month, setting it on a path to come closer to the sun than any human-made object ever has before.
