Parker Solar Probe, NASA's historic mission to solve the mysteries of the Sun, is alive and well after skimming by the Sun at just 15 million miles from its surface.

This is far closer than any spacecraft has ever gone -- the previous record was set by Helios B in 1976 and broken by Parker on October 29 -- and this manoeuvre has exposed the spacecraft to intense heat and solar radiation in a complex solar wind environment, NASA said in a statement on Thursday.