A record-breaking NASA probe circling the sun has found never-before-seen spikes of solar wind and a flipping magnetic field

• NASA has released its first results from the Parker Solar Probe's close approaches to the sun.
• For the first time, the probe found evidence of a zone with no cosmic dust, as well as a source of the solar wind of charged particles that streams from the sun.
• It also discovered previously unseen bursts of rapid solar wind that bend the sun's magnetic field backwards.
• The spacecraft will zip around the sun 21 more times in the next six years.
• Its findings could help scientists devise new protections for astronauts and Earth's electric grid.
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NASA's record-breaking solar probe has discovered new, mysterious phenomena at the edge of the sun.

Since it launched in August 2018, the Parker Solar Probe has rocketed around the sun three times, getting closer than any spacecraft before it and traveling faster than any other human-made object in history.

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