Watch: NASA launches Parker Solar Probe to go “touch” the sun

NASA launched its Parker Solar Probe the will go close to the sun.

The unprecedented sun-skimming probe that lifted off on Sunday from the US is set to study the 'solar winds' proposed in the paper by Dr Eugene Newman Parker, who has now become the first living scientist to have mission named after him.

NASA's Parker Solar Probe, which will fly closer to the Sun that any other spacecraft has attempted before is set to explore the corona, a region of the Sun only seen from Earth when the Moon blocks out the Sun's bright face during total solar eclipses.