Gargantuan solar storms exploding from the sun captured in stunning images by NASA's PUNCH mission (video)
Sizing Up Solar Storms: First Glance at Coronal Mass Ejections via NASA's PUNCH Mission
NASA's PUNCH spacecraft has unleashed jaw-dropping images of solar eruptions known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs), offering an unparalleled view of their journey through the inner solar system.
CMEs - monstrous clouds made up of plasma and magnetic fields - blast off from the sun. When they aim for Earth, they can spark geomagnetic storms that play havoc with satellites, GPS and jeopardize astronauts. These tempests can also amp up auroras, resulting in breathtaking light shows beyond their usual turf. Decoding the mysteries behind these weather makers will help safeguard satellites, astronauts, and infrastructure while adding insights into when we can expect mesmerizing aurora displays.
The first CME images, snapped from late May to early June 2025 by three of PUNCH's four cutting-edge cameras, were unveiled Tuesday at the 246th American Astronomical Society meeting in Anchorage, Alaska. The PUNCH spacecraft boasts four cameras forming a "virtual instrument," enabling scientists to trace CMEs crosswise the inner solar system with unprecedented precision.
"These images are mind-blowing, but we've only just scratched the surface," said Craig DeForest, PUNCH's principal investigator from Southwest Research Institute's Solar System Science and Exploration Division in Boulder, Colorado. "Once the spacecraft settle into their final formation, we'll be capable of tracking our weather patterns routinely in 3D across the entire inner solar system."
A sequence of stitched videos showcases massive CMEs expanding in all directions, some zeroing in on the camera. In the celestial panorama, the moon, Venus, Jupiter, and the constellation Orion make appearances.
The moon glows as a bright object toward the video's left corner at the onset. Orion resides at the bottom left, while Jupiter is snuggled up on the left, and Venus nestles on the far right. The sun is marked by a yellow dot at the center, with a dashed white circle around it representing the field of view of the older LASCO C3 coronagraph on NASA-ESA's SOHO spacecraft.
On June 3, the fourth camera's Narrow Field Imager (NFI), an advanced coronagraph designed to bar the sun's light, captured a CME in stunning detail. The spherical eruption emerges from above the blacked-out sun, highlighting the instrument's ability to closely observe the sun's outer atmosphere.
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The PUNCH spacecraft lifted off atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 11:10 p.m. EST March 12, 2025 (0310 March 12 GMT), in tandem with the SPHEREx space telescope. The mission encompasses four mini satellites working together in sun-synchronous orbit, which preserves the same relative position regarding the sun.
Over its planned two-year mission, PUNCH will provide continuous, global 3D observations of the sun's outer atmosphere and the inner solar system. By studying how solar material escapes to form the solar wind, researchers aim to get a clearer picture of how space weather, including CMEs and solar flares, forms and evolves. This could pave the way for improved forecasts of space weather impacts on satellites, astronauts, and tech systems here on Earth.
- The unveiling of images captured by NASA's PUNCH spacecraft underscores the significance of understanding space-and-astronomy, particularly the behavior of solar storms known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs).
- As we continue to delve into the world of science, studying CMEs could potentially lead to better technology for forecasting space weather, safeguarding satellite, astronaut, and infrastructure systems here on Earth.
- With the anticipation of mesmerizing light shows, keeping an eye on news related to space-and-astronomy and weather could offer opportunities to witness spectacular aurora displays.
- As we venture into the realm of travel, listening to the latest updates on space-and-astronomy, including the PUNCH Mission, could help improve our knowledge of the cosmos and possibly open up new opportunities for exploration and understanding in history.
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