NASA approves two sun exploration missions, the Aurora Borealis: The Tribune India

Washington, December 30

NASA has approved two missions to explore the Sun and the system that drives space weather near Earth.

These two missions are the Epsilon High-throughput UV Spectroscopy Mission, or EUVST, and the Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer, or EZIE..

The US space agency said Tuesday that NASA’s contribution to the missions will help us understand the Sun and Earth as an interconnected system.

Understanding the physics that drives solar winds and solar flares – including solar flares and coronal mass ejections – could one day help scientists predict these events, which could affect human technology and space explorers.

“We are very pleased to add these new missions to our growing fleet of satellites studying our sun and Earth system using an amazing array of unprecedented observational tools,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, Associate Director of Science at NASA Headquarters in Washington. statement.

Japan Space Exploration Agency (JAXA) is leading the Epsilon (Solar-C EUVST Mission) mission along with other international partners.

Scheduled to be launched in 2026, EUVST is a solar telescope that will study how the solar atmosphere releases solar winds and leads to an eruption of solar material.

These phenomena are diffused from the sun and affect the space radiation environment throughout the solar system.

NASA hardware contributions to the mission include a UV-detector condenser, electronics support, spectrometer components, a pointing telescope, software and a jaw imaging system to provide context for the spectroscopy.

The budget for NASA’s contributions to EUVST is $ 55 million.

The Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer (EZIE) will study electrical currents in Earth’s atmosphere connecting auroras to Earth’s magnetosphere – one piece of Earth’s complex space weather system, which responds to solar activity and other factors.

The Auroral Electrojet (AE) indicator is a popular measure of levels of geomagnetic activity, although the details of the structure of these currents are not understood.

NASA said EZIE will not launch no later than June 2024, adding that the mission’s total budget is $ 53.3 million. Ian