NASA releases first observations from new PUNCH Sun telescope | Science News

NASA’s PUNCH mission unveils stunning first images of coronal mass ejections, capturing the Sun’s explosive plasma eruptions in unprecedented detail. Presented at the 246th AAS meeting, these observations promise to improve space weather forecasting.

A coronal mass ejection on 3 June captured by NASA’s new Punch observatory. (Image Credit: NASA/SwRI).

New Delhi: The first images from NASA’s new Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) mission were presented at the 246th American Astronomical Society meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, USA. The observations reveal a number of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) travelling through the inner solar system. These are massive eruptions in which the Sun lobs magnetised plasma outwards into space, that have an influence on all the worlds in the Solar System. The wide-field instruments are capturing these CMEs in exquisite resolution, beyond the capabilities of previous heliophysics observatories.

The Punch mission consists of four satellites that work in tandem, with the observations stitched together to form a single virtual instrument. Three of these are wide field imagers that observe the corona, or outer atmosphere, where the solar wind emerges, a continuous stream of energetic particles that washes over the Solar System. A narrow field imager uses a coronagraph to create a miniature eclipse that blocks out the Sun and prevents the instrument from getting saturated. The images were captured before the four satellites moved into position. Once the spacecraft reach their target regimes.

The best is yet to come

PUNCH principal investigator Craig DeForest says“These first images are astonishing, but the best is still yet to come. Once the spacecraft are in their final formation, we’ll be able to routinely track space weather in 3D across the entire inner solar system.” Punch is on a two year mission, during which it will capture continuous 3D observations. Jupiter and Venus can be seen photobombing the CMEs in the observations, along with the Pleiades star cluster and the constellation of Orion. Both Aditya-L1 and the newly launched PROBA-3 mission plug the observation gap between one and three solar radii, represented by the black spot surrounding the Sun at the centre of the image. Together, these new heliophysics observatories are expected to improve space weather predictions.

Aditya has studied journalism, multimedia technologies and ᚨᚾᚲᛁᛖᚾᛏ ᚱᚢᚾᛖᛋ. He has over 10 years experience as a science and technology reporter, with a focus on space, AI, videogames, cybsersecurity and fundamental research. He is usually found playing with age inappropriate LEGO sets or sedentary games both new and old.

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