NASA�??s Heliophysics Experiment to Study Sun on European Mission

MAY 21, 2024

RELEASE 24-072

The Joint EUV coronal Diagnostic Investigation (JEDI) will fly aboard the European Space Agency�??s Vigil space weather mission and capture new views that will help researchers connect features on the Sun�??s surface to those in the Sun�??s outer atmosphere, the corona.

Credits: NASA

NASA announced Tuesday it selected a new instrument to study the Sun and how it creates massive solar eruptions. The agency�??s Joint EUV coronal Diagnostic Investigation, or JEDI, will capture images of the Sun in extreme ultraviolet light, a type of light invisible to our eyes but reveals many of the underlying mechanisms of the Sun�??s activity.

Once integrated aboard the ESA�??s (European Space Agency�??s) Vigil space weather mission, JEDI�??s two telescopes will focus on the middle layer of the solar corona, a region of the Sun�??s atmosphere that plays a key role in creating the solar wind and the solar eruptions that cause space weather.

The Vigil space mission, planned to launch in 2031, is expected to provide around-the-clock space weather data from a unique position at Sun-Earth Lagrange point 5 �?? a gravitationally stable point about 60 degrees behind Earth in its orbit. This vantage point will give space weather researchers and forecasters a new angle to study the Sun and its eruptions. NASA�??s JEDI will be the first instrument to provide a constant view of the Sun from this perspective in extreme ultraviolet light �?? giving scientists a trove of new data for research, while simultaneously supporting Vigil�??s ability to monitor space weather. 

�??JEDI�??s observations will help us link the features we see on the Sun�??s surface with what we measure in the solar atmosphere, the corona,�?� said Nicola Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. �??Combined with Vigil�??s first-of-its-kind, eagle eye view of the Sun, this will change the way we understand the Sun�??s drivers of space weather �?? which in turn can lead to improved warnings to mitigate space weather effects on satellites and humans in space as well as on Earth.�?�

The project is led by Don Hassler at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. The instrument is funded by the NASA Heliophysics Space Weather Program with a total cost not to exceed $45 million. Management oversight will be provided by the Living With a Star Program of the Explorers & Heliophysics Projects Division at NASA�??s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

For more information on NASA heliophysics missions, visit:

https://science.nasa.gov/heliophysics

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