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The sun has a way of bothering us. Although it fuels our very existence, the Sun also tends to threaten our modern life with its raging solar storms.
In 1859, a plasma explosion from the solar corona, now known as the Carrington Event, destroyed telegraph systems around the world. While some telegraph operators tried to send and receive messages, they received electric shocks. Today, if such an event were to happen again, it would seriously disrupt our power grid and interfere with the GPS systems that inform much of the modern movement.
Fortunately, scientists are working hard to better predict when these solar storms might occur. This week, NASA approved two new missions aimed at understanding what creates space weather, how the Sun affects the solar system, and can so effectively mess up our Earth technology.
The two new missions focus on the field of heliophysics, which is the study of the interaction between the Sun and the solar system.
They have long names, but like much of NASA, they’re each associated with some kind of memorable acronym. There is the Extreme Ultraviolet High-Throughput Spectroscopic Telscope Epsilon Mission, or EUVST, and the Eelectrojet WITHeeman Ibe Explorer, or EZIE.
Both missions aim to help scientists understand the physics of the solar wind. The more we know about this, the better we can predict outbreak events that could seriously disrupt life on Earth and astronauts in space.
Epsilon Mission Extreme Ultraviolet High Throughput Spectroscopic Telescope (EUVST)
The first mission is led by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), with NASA contributing material for the mission.
EUVST is a solar telescope that will observe how the Sun’s atmosphere releases the solar wind and causes solar flares.
Solar activity is largely dependent on the Sun’s magnetic field. The Sun’s magnetic field goes through a periodic cycle in which the south and north poles essentially change spots, and it takes them another 11 years or so to go back.
During its 11-year cycle, the Sun periodically ejects boiling plasma, in the form of solar flares and solar wind, through the solar system. These ejections can have an effect here on Earth, by disrupting communication systems for example, or by interfering with electricity.
Solar activity can cause magnetic storms in Earth’s upper atmosphere, which can affect power grids, satellites, orbiting spacecraft, and astronauts.
Once launched in 2026, EUVST will take comprehensive UV spectroscopy measurements of the solar atmosphere at the highest level of detail to date, allowing scientists to understand how different magnetic and plasma processes cause the solar corona to heat up and release energy. solar power, according to NASA.
The solar telescope will essentially observe the Sun as if it were a distant star, analyzing the spectrum of the Sun’s extreme ultraviolet radiation in order to study the Sun’s atmosphere in detail.
To achieve this, EUVST has been developed with higher sensitivity and resolution than any other spectrometer.
- Launch date: 2026
- Cost: $ 55 million
- Mission lifetime: 2 years
- Date of first proposal: January 2018
- Main objective: understand how the solar wind is generated
Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer (EZIE)
Meanwhile, the second approved mission will study the electrical currents in Earth’s atmosphere that connect the auroras to Earth’s magnetosphere, or to the region of space that surrounds our planet.
Scheduled for launch in June 2024, the Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer (EZIE) is made up of three CubeSats, a miniature cube-shaped satellite, which will observe the electric current flowing through the Earth’s atmosphere approximately 60 to 90 miles above sea level. above the surface, extending into the planet’s magnetosphere.
In doing so, scientists hope to witness the interaction between the solar wind and Earth’s magnetosphere, the same process by which amazing auroras are created in our skies. While they provide a magnificent view of our skies, aurorae can also interfere with communications and radio signals, as well as spacecraft in orbit.
The mission will use the Auroral Electrojet Index, a global index that measures magnetic activity in auroral areas, as well as measurements of ultraviolet light to study solar activity.
The EZIE mission will be led by the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University.
- Launch date: June 2024
- Cost: $ 53.3 million
- Mission lifetime: 2 years
- Date of first proposal: 2018
The two missions combined will lead to a new understanding of our Sun, as well as the physics behind the activity of our host star and how it affects us here on Earth.
“With these new missions, we are expanding the way we study the Sun, space and Earth as an interconnected system,” said Peg Luce, deputy director of the heliophysics division at NASA headquarters in Washington, in a statement. communicated.
As scientists closely observe the complex processes that determine solar weather, they hope to protect Earth from occasional storms from the Sun so that our satellite systems remain intact and we don’t lose connection while trying to find our way on Google Maps. or worse. , receive electric shocks while trying to operate our version of the telegraph system.
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