Our solar is much from the flawless orb of sunshine we see within the sky. Spacecraft observations have lengthy proven that, up shut, the “floor” of our star rumbles with highly effective eddies and is dotted with fiery sunspots that often burp superheated materials into area — a phenomenon that happens much more incessantly throughout phases of elevated turbulence on our star, just like the one we’re experiencing now.

Scientists are hoping NASA’s Parker Photo voltaic Probe will get a singular style of the solar’s wrath on Christmas Eve, when it will swoop inside 3.8 million miles (6.1 million kilometers) of the solar’s floor — the closest but a human-made object has ever gotten to our star. At this report distance, the probe is already anticipated to reduce by plumes of plasma nonetheless rooted to the solar, akin to a surfer diving underneath a crashing wave.