The moon hovers on a dark void crowned with sun in a Superb new photo taken by NasaPolarimeter to unify the Corona and Heliosphere (Punch) mission on April 27.
Punch is a collection of four small orbit satellites around the earth with their instruments intended for the sun. Launched on March 11Its objective is to study the solar wind – the flow of charged particles emanating from the sun and the cause of spatial time. He will do it by taking photos of the sun and the space between her and the earth.
To prepare for its phase of scientific operations, the punch must go through commissioning – a test and alignment phase of the instruments. The above image was taken as part of the commissioning process. The dark and circular shadow comes from the “obscurer”. The concealler is necessary to prevent sunlight from submerging images, just as the moon blocks the sun during a solar eclipserevealing the delicate banners and filaments that extend from the surface of the sun in the crown, the most external atmosphere of the sun.
The golden glow surrounding the sun is reflected in the light on the concealler, and the dark areas at the top of the image are outside the field of vision of the instrument. The moon is lit by the light reflected off the earth. The images collected during the scientific operations of the mission will undergo more treatment to eliminate wandering light and some small distortions left by contamination to reveal detailed images of the crown of the sun.
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Photos of the crown of the sun can help scientists study the solar wind – the more than 300,000 tonnes (272,000 metric tonnes) of equipment The sun explodes in space every second to a million mph (1.6 million km / h), bathed the whole solar system in a fiery stew of loaded particles. The solar wind is responsible for geomagnetic storms which, on earth, can cause power network failures and radio breakdowns, and disrupt or damage satellites. Understanding the solar wind helps us to prepare for geomagnetic storms so that life on earth can continue without disturbance.
The photos that Punch will take will not directly show the volatile magnetic field of the sun. Instead, they show massive, shiny plasma curls And explosions that are shaped. The models in banners and filaments emanating from the sun help researchers to map the regions linked to extreme space time which causes geomagnetic storms on earth. When combined with data collected in the crown of the sun by the Parker Solar Probe (PSP), the science of punch will allow a much deeper understanding of the processes that drive the solar wind. This knowledge, in turn, can help protect the planet from geomagnetic storms.
“PSP and Punch both work to unite two distinct branches of heliophysics in a unified whole”, principal punch researcher, Craig Deforestsaid live in an email. “PSP transports the techniques of space physics (in situ sampling) to touch and measure the solar crown. The punch extends the solar physics techniques (scientific imaging) to the outside to measure how the solar corona touches us. The two missions complement each other.”
Punch should finish its commissioning phase on June 9 and will start collecting new images of the sun and the area that surrounds it continuously. The data collected will be Available for anyone Who wishes to access it as part of Punch’s commitment to open inclusive science.