This illustration shows the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe observing signals from the interaction of the A stream of charged particles, mostly protons and electrons, that escapes into the Sun's outer atmosphere at high speeds and streams out into the solar system in all directions. with the winds of other stars.
Image Credit: NASA
NASA has selected a science mission planned for launch in 2024 that will sample, analyze, and map particles streaming to Earth from the edges of interstellar space.
The Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) mission will help researchers better understand the boundary of the heliosphere, a sort of magnetic bubble surrounding and protecting our solar system. This region is where the constant flow of particles from our Sun, called the A stream of charged particles, mostly protons and electrons, that escapes into the Sun's outer atmosphere at high speeds and streams out into the solar system in all directions., collides with material from the rest of the A huge collection of millions to trillions of stars and their planetary systems held together by gravity, and the gas, plasma, and dust that are also gravitationally held to the galaxy. The galaxy our solar system is found in is called the Milky Way.. This collision limits the amount of harmful cosmic Usually refers to electromagnetic waves, such as light, radio, infrared, X-rays, ultraviolet; also sometimes used to refer to atomic particles of high energy, such as electrons (beta-radiation), helium nuclei (alpha-radiation), and so on. entering the The bubble-like region surrounding the solar system inflated by the solar wind, shielding the solar system from interstellar radiation.. IMAP will collect and analyze particles that make it through.
“This boundary is where our Sun does a great deal to protect us. IMAP is critical to broadening our understanding of how this ‘cosmic filter’ works,” said Dennis Andrucyk, deputy associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “The implications of this research could reach well beyond the consideration of Earthly impacts as we look to send humans into deep space.”
Another objective of the mission is to learn more about the generation of Charged atomic particles moving in space with very high energies and velocities close to the speed of light; most originate beyond the solar system, but some of relatively low energy area produced in solar flares (called Solar Energetic Particles), and some intermediate energy, called anomalous cosmic rays, are produced at the edge of our solar system. in the heliosphere. Cosmic rays created locally and from the galaxy and beyond affect human explorers in space and can harm technological systems, and likely play a role in the presence of life itself in the The totality of all space and time; all that is, has been, and will be..
The spacecraft will be positioned at what is called the first Lagrange point or L1, which is about one million miles from Earth towards the Sun. This will allow the probe to maximize use of its instruments to monitor the interactions between solar wind and the The interstellar medium is the matter that exists in the space between the stars within a galaxy. This matter includes ionized and electrically neutral gas (primarily hydrogen and helium), dust, and cosmic rays. The ISM plays a crucial role in the lifecycle of stars and galaxies. It is the reservoir from which new stars are born and into which old stars expel material when they die. in the outer solar system.
The mission’s principal investigator is David McComas of Princeton University. The Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, will provide project management. The mission will carry 10 science instruments provided by international and domestic research organizations and universities.
IMAP was selected following an extensive and competitive peer review of proposals submitted in late 2017. The mission is cost-capped at $492 million, excluding cost for the launch vehicle.
This is the fifth mission in NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Probes (STP) Program portfolio. Others include the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO), a collaboration with An Electrostatic Analyzer is an instrument used in ion optics that employs an electric field to allow the passage of only those ions or electrons that have a given specific energy. It usually also focuses these particles (concentrates them) into a smaller area. (European Space Agency) that enabled a global view of the Sun and inner heliosphere; the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission currently investigating the fundamental process of The process by which two separate magnetic field lines snap and reform with new field lines made up of half of one and half of the other. This process takes magnetic energy and turns it into heating and acceleration of the local charged particles. near Earth; the solar remote sensing mission Hinode, an ongoing collaboration with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency; and the Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED), a mission observing the outermost layers of the Earth’s A gaseous envelope surrounding a planet, or the visible layers of a star..
The The study of the Sun and its connection to the solar system, including the physical processes that occur in the space environment. Program Office at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the STP Program for the agency’s Heliophysics Division in Washington. NASA’s heliophysics missions seek to understand the Sun, and its interaction with the Earth and the solar system out to the interstellar medium, including The conditions and activity observed in interplanetary space caused by the Sun’s activity, such as solar flares, solar storms, and coronal mass ejections (CMEs). Severe space weather conditions directed towards Earth can impact infrastructure and technology on Earth, as well as satellites, spacecraft, and astronauts in its trajectory..
Learn more on the NASA website or the NASA Heliophysics website.