NASA’s Parker Solar Probe completed its 28th close flyby of the Sun, matching key speed and distance records it first set in December 2024. Solar also overtook coal in the US for the first time in May, while an ISS astronaut shared timelapse footage of the aur
When the Parker Solar Probe lined up for its latest approach, NASA knew exactly what would matter most: whether the spacecraft’s heat shield held up under the same punishing conditions as before.
This week. the probe made another close pass around the Sun. coming just 3.8 million miles from the surface and reaching a speed of 430. 000 mph. It was its 28th flyby, and it matched the speed and distance records the probe first set back in December 2024. NASA says the probe has hit those numbers five times since they were set.
The sequence began on June 3, when the spacecraft started its latest approach. By Thursday, the team received a beacon tone, a straightforward signal that things were still going well.
Parker has been studying the Sun for eight years, gradually tightening its path inward. It launched in 2018 and made its first close approach that fall, when it came within 15 million miles of the Sun’s surface. For that first flyby, it reached a maximum speed of 213,200 mph.
Even with the numbers and engineering milestones, the real question stays the same: how does the hardware survive?. When the probe is closest to the Sun, its heat shield is estimated to reach 1,700 degrees F. Beneath it, thermal blankets are designed to keep the spacecraft’s own temperature steady during each pass.
John Wirzburger. Parker Solar Probe mission systems engineer at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. framed that steadiness as the clearest health check. “That temperature consistency is a major indicator of spacecraft health,” he said. “It tells us the heat shield isn’t degrading. If it were cracking or weakening, we’d see temperatures drift upward as more heat leaked through.”.
The mission is also chasing a longer rhythm: solar wind and activity across the Sun’s 11-year cycle. Parker arrived near the quieter period called solar minimum and has stayed long enough to witness solar maximum. which was confirmed in 2024. That’s the phase where solar activity peaks—bringing more sunspots and events like solar flares and coronal mass ejections—before activity gradually declines into the next stretch.
In other words, the probe’s timing isn’t accidental. It’s a front-row seat for major changes, and NASA has been using what it gathers to better understand how the Sun affects space weather.
Solar finally beats coal in a landmark US month
The Sun’s influence isn’t just being measured in orbit—its impact is showing up on the grid. In May 2026. solar accounted for more electricity generation than coal in the United States for the first time on record. according to an energy think tank report from Ember.
Ember says solar supplied a record 12.8 percent of US electricity in May. while coal fell to 12.2 percent. its fourth-lowest monthly share ever. Solar’s total output in the month reached a record 45.5TWh. making it the third-largest source of electricity in the country. Coal was close behind at 43.4TWh, but that figure represented an 11 percent drop compared to the same time last year.
Ember also pointed to earlier weakness for coal: in April, it dipped to its lowest-ever monthly total on record at 39.3TWh.
The report quantified the shift in shares across five years. saying coal’s generation in the US mix has nearly halved. falling from 19.7 percent in May 2021 to 12.2 percent in May 2026. Over the same period, it says solar power’s share more than doubled from 5.4 percent to 12.8 percent. Ember added that solar still fell behind gas and nuclear. but clean power is “ticking upward” even as policy shifts move in the other direction—highlighting that in March. renewables collectively generated more electricity than gas for the first time in the US.
A solar event. then a show in the sky
Back in space. the Sun’s latest activity was also turning into something people could see. Earlier this week. an astronaut aboard the International Space Station shared a timelapse video of the aurora australis—aurora in the Southern Hemisphere. Jessica Meir. the spacecraft commander for NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12 mission. captured the footage from a Dragon spacecraft docked to the ISS.
Meir wrote on social media: “As opposed to the previous aurora I’ve seen, this one danced and snaked its way directly below us, putting on quite a show.” She added, “I am in awe of this y [sic] evocative phenomenon.”
The video came with a post that identified it as “a result of a recent solar event.”
On the ground, the timing lined up with warnings issued by NOAA’s National Space Weather Prediction Center. Last week, it issued G2 and G3 geomagnetic storm watches, telling enthusiasts to expect auroras in more regions than normal. In the Northern Hemisphere. auroras were predicted to be visible across Canada and the northern US. while viewers in Australia and New Zealand had a chance to catch the southern lights.
Taken together, the week’s science feels like one continuous thread: a spacecraft designed to withstand the Sun’s harshest conditions, energy charts showing solar’s momentum on Earth, and a night-sky display that rides in step with solar activity.
Parker Solar Probe solar energy coal Ember US electricity aurora australis geomagnetic storm watches NOAA ISS SpaceX Crew-12 Jessica Meir