A National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) spacecraft – Parker Solar Probe – has touched the sun for the first time in history and flown through its upper atmosphere, the corona, according to the space agency.

The Parker Solar Probe, on April 28, touched the corona during its eighth close approach to the sun. NASA shared the development in a tweet on Tuesday with the illustration of the craft.

The US space agency termed the development as “one giant leap for solar science” just like the landing on the moon. NASA said it would help in understanding the dynamics of the star and uncover critical information.

It added the craft would continue venturing closer to the sun in the coming years, bringing new science and insight about the star.

“Parker Solar Probe ‘touching the sun’ is a monumental moment for solar science and a truly remarkable feat,” Thomas Zurbuchen, the associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at the NASA Headquarters in Washington, was quoted saying,

“Not only does this milestone provide us with deeper insights into our sun's evolution and its impacts on our solar system, but everything we learn about our own star also teaches us more about stars in the rest of the universe,” it read.

According to NASA, the Parker Solar Probe was launched in 2018 to explore the mysteries of the Sun by travelling closer to it than any spacecraft before. In 2019, the craft discovered that magnetic zig-zag structures in the solar wind, called switchbacks, are plentiful close to the Sun.

“Flying so close to the sun, Parker Solar Probe now senses conditions in the magnetically dominated layer of the solar atmosphere – the corona – that we never could before,” said Nour Raouafi, the Parker project scientist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland.