Santa and his reindeer were not the only bodies making a celestial journey on 24 December: Nasa has revealed that its Parker solar probe successfully completed its closest-ever approach to the sun and remains in good health. It is the closest any human-made object has ever come to our star, with the probe experiencing temperatures of up to 982C (1,800F) and intense radiation. Dr Nicola Fox, Nasa’s head of science, said: “It is 3.8m miles from the sun’s surface. It is breaking all of these records and it’s a just a total ‘Yay, we did it!’ moment.” Launched in 2018
