The Sun, the center of our solar system and on many levels our source of life, is ironically one of the least explored celestial bodies in our proximity. For obvious reasons, of course.

However, these reasons are now obsolete, as NASA is setting out to prove. By as early as 2015, they hope to send out a space probe to enter the atmosphere of the Sun.

The mission, called Solar Probe+, will be sending out a spacecraft that can withstand temperature as high as 1400 degrees Celsius. Like in the movie Sunshine, the spacecraft will have its own heat-shield to protect itself from the intensity of the sunlight. In case you were wondering, yes, the probe will be solar powered.

Why send a probe in the first place, you ask? Well, aside from how fun it would be, the Sun holds several mysteries that scientists at NASA want to answer. For example, the surface of the sun is about 6000 degrees Celsius. However, counter-intuitively, the outer atmosphere is much, much hotter than that. Another mystery is the solar wind: there is no organized wind on the solar surface, yet it blows out blasts of solar wind out among the planets.

These mysteries will hopefully be answered by the probe, which will enter the Sun's corona, around 7 million kilometers from the Sun. On its journey to the sun, the probe will also pass along the planet Venus. Since it's already there, the probe will also be taking a quick look at the planet, and scientists hope to learn new things about her as well.