Nasa has taken the closest ever image of the sun in a bid to understand the workings of our star.
The Parker Solar Probe was about 16.9 million miles (27.1 million km) from the Sun's surface when the image was taken.
This makes the probe 133 million miles (214 million km) closer to the surface of the sun than Earth is - which orbits around 150 million miles (241 million km) away.
Mercury can be seen as a bright blob in the centre of the image and the black dots are said to have been caused by 'background adjustment' from the camera.
A coronal streamer - solar material near highly active regions of the sun - can be seen as a flashing streak across the image.
Astronomers are hoping the Parker mission can provide valuable data to help understand the mysterious processes of the sun.
'Parker Solar Probe is going to a region we've never visited before,' said Terry Kucera, a solar physicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.
'Meanwhile, from a distance, we can observe the Sun's corona, which is driving the complex environment around Parker Solar Probe.'
Nasa hopes its Parker Probe can explain three main mysteries that have long confounded scientists.
These include: Why the corona is heated to temperatures about 300 times higher than the surface below, how the solar wind accelerates at such vast speed and how does the sun eject some particles at half the speed of light.
Parker has only just started beaming data back to scientists back on Earth despite launching back in August.
Parker's WISPR instrument was pointed sideways from behind the dense heat shield of Parker when it captured the image.
'We don't know what to expect so close to the Sun until we get the data, and we'll probably see some new phenomena,' said Parker researcher Nour Raouafi.
'Parker is an exploration mission — the potential for new discoveries is huge.'
Measurements of the sun's atmosphere from a plethora of scientific measurements will give scientists new tools to discover how how the star operates.
The spacecraft's ISʘIS suite will also help with understanding the energetic particle acceleration and the FIELDS instrument will detect electrical activity will understand the coronal heating.
Thermal properties of ions ejected from the sun will be studied by the Solar Probe Cup instrument and this, combined with FIELDS, will shed light on the behaviour of the solar wind.
Parker got within 15 million miles (25 million kilometers) of the sun's surface in November.
Twenty-four such orbits - dipping into the sun's upper atmosphere, or corona - are planned over the next seven years.
The gap will eventually shrink to 3.8 million miles (6 million kilometers).
The unmanned spacecraft is on an unprecedented quest that will take it straight through the edges of the corona, or outer solar atmosphere, just 3.8million miles from the sun's surface.
Previously, the closest an aircraft had come to the sun was 27million miles.
This mission will require 55 times more energy than would be needed to reach Mars, according to NASA.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
