Explosions of charged particles from the Sun, known as Coronal Mass Ejections (CME), are being observed in more detail by a NASA mission aimed at helping scientists better predict space weather events.
A new video stitched together using the first PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) mission images captured these eruptions from the Sun from May to June. The result is the stunning time-lapse video above.
PUNCH launched into polar orbit on March 11 to create 3D observations of the Sun’s outer atmosphere. The mission consists of four suitcase-sized spacecraft, each with an imager onboard. The four spacecraft work in tandem to form a single “virtual instrument,” according to NASA.
In the video, CMES are seen blasting out and moving in all directions. The CME imagery was taken using PUNCH’s three Wide Field Imagers and a Narrow Field Imager. The spacecraft includes a coronagraph, which blocks out the bright light of the Sun revealing the details of the Sun’s atmosphere, enabling the views below.
“These preliminary movies show that PUNCH can actually track space weather across the solar system and view the corona and solar wind as a single system,” said Craig DeForest, PUNCH principal investigator from SwRI’s Space Science and Exploration Division in Boulder, Colorado. “This big-picture view is essential to helping scientists better understand and predict space weather driven by CMEs, which can disrupt communications, endanger satellites and create auroras at Earth.”
CMEs can trigger Geomagnetic Storms on Earth, creating vibrant displays of Northern Lights. However, they can also impact the technology we use daily, such as GPS, and cause power grid issues.
DeForest said the best is yet to come from PUNCH.
“Once the spacecraft are in their final formation and the ground processing is fully sighted over the next few months, we’ll be able to track the solar wind and space weather in 3D throughout our neighborhood in space,” DeForest said.
The PUNCH mission comes as the Sun reached solar maximum last year in Solar Cycle 25, a period marked by increasing sunspots and more extreme space weather such as the geomagnetic storms of May 2024 which produced Northern Lights in the Southeast. NASA said the auroras were some of the strongest in 500 years.
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