{"id":794282,"date":"2025-03-12T04:32:06","date_gmt":"2025-03-12T09:32:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=794282"},"modified":"2025-03-12T04:32:06","modified_gmt":"2025-03-12T09:32:06","slug":"nasas-spherex-and-punch-launched-to-map-the-universe-and-track-solar-wind-in-3d","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=794282","title":{"rendered":"NASA\u2019s SPHEREx and PUNCH launched to map the universe and track solar wind in 3D"},"content":{"rendered":"


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NASA\u2019s SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer) and PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) missions were launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, at 20:10 LT (03:10 UTC on March 12) on March 11.<\/p>\n

Mission controllers have received full acquisition of signal from all instruments, indicating that they are functioning normally and at full power.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis new perspective will allow scientists to discern the exact trajectory and speed of coronal mass ejections as they move through the inner solar system,\u201d Craig DeForest, principal investigator for PUNCH at Southwest Research Institute\u2019s Solar System Science and Exploration Division in Boulder, Colorado, said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis improves on current instruments in two ways: with three-dimensional imaging that lets us locate and track CMEs which are coming directly toward us; and with a broad field of view, which lets us track those CMEs all the way from the Sun to Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n

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