• NASA has selected an US based Indian researcher to lead its PUNCH mission which will image the Sun.

PUNCH Mission:

• PUNCH stands for “Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere,” is focused on understanding the transition of particles from the Sun’s outer corona to the solar wind that fills interplanetary space.
• It will consist of a constellation of four microsatellites that through continuous 3D deep-field imaging, will observe the corona and heliosphere as elements of a single, connected system.
• This is a landmark mission will image regions beyond the Sun’s outer corona.
• The Sun and the solar wind are one interconnected system, but these have until recently been studied using entirely different technologies and scientific approaches www.buymyhouse7.com.

Significance:

• Other missions such as NASA’s Parker Solar Probe and the ESA-NASA joint project, Solar Orbiter, which is due to be launched in 2020, can study the structures of the Sun’s atmosphere.
• The PUNCH mission enhances these by tracking these structures in real time.
• Since the Sun’s corona is much fainter than its surface layers, it cannot be viewed by the instruments directly.
• So, PUNCH will block out the light from the Sun to view its corona and the structures in it.
• Constellation of satellites:
• PUNCH will consist of a ‘constellation’ of four suitcase-sized microsats that will orbit the Earth in formation and study how the corona, which is the atmosphere of the Sun, connects with the interplanetary medium.
• The mission is expected to be launched in 2022.