<ul><li>NASA's Parker Solar Probe successfully completed a historic flyby of the sun on Christmas Eve.</li><li>The spacecraft flew within 3.8 million miles (6.1 million kilometers) of the sun's surface, closer than any human-made object has ever been before.</li><li>Mission control will only know the flyby's success and the spacecraft's condition on December 27 after receiving a beacon signal.</li><li>The probe is expected to return data from uncharted territory and help scientists understand the sun's mysteries.</li></ul>

NASA's Parker Solar Probe completes historic Christmas Eve flyby of the sun — but it could take days to know if it survived

Discover more