Featured Image Credit: Mark Garlick/Science Photo Library/Getty Images
Topics: Science, Space, NASA, Technology, US News
Ellie Kemp
Topics: Science, Space, NASA, Technology, US News
NASA is set to launch a first-of-its-kind mission to the sun this week which will tell us more about the star at the center of our solar system.
Along with its SPHEREx space telescope - which is more powerful than the current James Webb space telescope - NASA is hoping to begin its PUNCH experiment on Friday morning (February 28).
The Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) mission will be the first to image the sun’s corona - also known as its outer atmosphere - as well as its solar wind together, to better understand 'the sun, solar wind, and Earth as a single connected system,' the space agency said.
An Elon Musk-owned SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will be responsible for transporting the PUNCH mission’s four suitcase-sized satellites into orbit from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
Back in 2019, the space agency confirmed the PUNCH mission would cost 'no more' than $165 million.
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We already know solar flares and winds are responsible for the stunning Northern Lights which can, at times, be spotted in locations across the globe.
Charged solar particles colliding with atoms and molecules in our planet's atmosphere creates the dazzling light displays we love to try and catch.
Solar wind is created by the sun ejecting a continuous stream of charged particles - electrons and protons - known as coronal mass ejection (CME).
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These solar winds and CMEs can tell us a lot more about our atmosphere and solar system.
Scientists are hoping to find out new information on how 'potentially disruptive solar events' form and evolve.
NASA said this could lead to 'more accurate predictions about the arrival of space weather events at Earth and impact on humanity’s robotic explorers in space.'
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Craig DeForest, principal investigator for PUNCH at Southwest Research Institute’s Solar System Science and Exploration Division in Boulder, Colorado, said: “What we hope PUNCH will bring to humanity is the ability to really see, for the first time, where we live inside the solar wind itself."
He added: “This new perspective will allow scientists to discern the exact trajectory and speed of coronal mass ejections as they move through the inner solar system.
"This improves on current instruments in two ways: with three-dimensional imaging that lets us locate and track Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) which are coming directly toward us; and with a broad field of view, which lets us track those CMEs all the way from the Sun to Earth.”
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You can watch the SPHEREx and PUNCH launch live via NASA's Youtube channel here.