US space agency NASA says one of its probes has come closer to the sun than any other spacecraft before.

NASA announced on Tuesday that the Parker Solar Probe, which is in orbit around the sun, came within about 6.1 million kilometers of its surface.

Parker was launched from the southern US state of Florida in 2018. It has a carbon-fiber heat shield that can withstand temperatures up to about 1,400 degrees Celsius.

Equipped with a wide range of observation instruments, the probe is expected to help solve mysteries about Earth's closest star, such as how its corona can reach temperatures in excess of a million degrees Celsius. Another is how charged particles flowing from the sun -- the solar wind -- accelerate.

NASA says it will analyze the data obtained by the probe at a future date.