It is the single fastest object ever built by man: NASA's Parker Solar Probe, designed and operated by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL). First launched in August 2018, it has been slowly, carefully orbiting closer and closer to the Sun. Parker's day job is to study the Sun's atmosphere, a dynamic and active area of solar winds and solar flares. According to NASA, on closest approach, Parker is a mere 3.8 million miles from the solar surface. It last peaked in 2024, when Parker first achieved its speed and distance milestones.