Nasa has launched a space probe that will go closer to the Sun than any spacecraft before.

The craft will endure extreme heat while zooming through the solar corona to study the Sun's outer atmosphere that gives rise to the solar winds, said the US agency.

The Parker Solar Probe, a spacecraft the size of a small car, launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida at about 3.30am local time yesterday, on a seven-year mission.

It is set to fly into the Sun's corona within 6.1 million km of the solar surface, seven times closer than any other spacecraft.

Nasa hopes that the findings from the US$1.5 billion (S$2.1 billion) project will enable scientists to forecast changes in the Earth's space environment.

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