In the early 1980s, heliophysicists needed answers. They wanted to learn how to protect astronauts and assets around Earth from the potentially damaging space weather that results from our tumultuous sun. To do that, they needed to better understand the constantly changing, dynamic space system around our planet—including measurements of the properties of the solar wind, the constant billowing of charged particles coming off the sun. Answering this call was the aptly named Wind mission, which launched 25 years ago, on Nov. 1, 1994. Wind currently orbits at the first Lagrange point, L1, a spot of gravitational balance between the sun and Earth, which allows the spacecraft to face the sun at all times.
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Source: Phys.org