NASA launches probe to ‘touch the sun’

US space agency NASA successfully launched their unmanned Parker Solar Probe into orbit with the aim of “touching the sun”, BBC reports. The probe was successfully launched Sunday onboard a Delta-IV Heavy rocket at Cape Canaveral, Florida at 3.31am local time. During its seven-year mission, the Parker probe will make 24 loops around the sun to study the physics of its outer atmosphere, or corona, during which it will sample conditions and coming just 6.16 million km (3.83 million miles) from the Sun's broiling “surface”.