Dr. David McComas, IMAP PI
Happy November to all our IMAP community! The GO IMAP! excitement increases every week as new milestones are incrementally reached in building and testing each of the specialized components of the IMAP instruments. As we finish laying out the electrical and mechanical systems for each instrument and begin manufacturing, small adjustments are occasionally needed as we move from paper to metal. This is a particularly invigorating challenge as there are such a large number of instruments. Ensuring each essential instrument will work perfectly brings the feeling of GO IMAP! into a tangible reality.
While the instruments on IMAP have varying degrees of heritage from other missions, the technical advances made in their transition to IMAP promises to give us the highest sensitivity and resolution images yet of the boundary of our solar system. Simultaneously, it’s in situ position at Lagrange Point 1 is an orbital path in space about one million miles from Earth towards the Sun that is without any magnetic interference from the planets., which is about one million miles from Earth towards the Sun, will also allow us to monitor 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., Magnetism is one of the basic forces of the universe. A magnetic field is a region of magnetism, which is caused by either moving electric charges or magnetic materials., and Charged particles (electrons, protons, and other ions) that are moving very fast (high energy). If the particles originate at the Sun, they are known as solar energetic particles (SEPs). in real A measure of the flow of events. as they move towards the boundary, away from the effects of planetary magnetospheres, and then again as the solar wind and pickup ions come back towards us as neutral atoms after interacting with the boundary region. It is beyond amazing to consider how these instruments will essentially create for us the data version of a streaming movie of the solar wind, monitoring its various movements and interaction here inside the The bubble-like region surrounding the solar system inflated by the solar wind, shielding the solar system from interstellar radiation., as well as its impacts with what lies outside of it. The three ENA cameras, IMAP-Lo, IMAP-Hi, and IMAP-Ultra, are responsible for the returning the ENA particle “footage,” working in concert to remote sense a complete Electromagnetic radiation arranged in order of wavelength. A rainbow is a natural spectrum of visible light from the Sun. Spectra are often punctuated with emission or absorption lines, which can be examined to reveal the composition and motion of the radiating source. of ENA populations and regions of the heliosphere and beyond.
IMAP-Ultra is truly the “ultra” camera in capturing the highest energy Energetic Neutral Atoms are atoms with no charge that move very quickly. These atoms have equal numbers of positively-charged protons and negatively-charged electrons. ENAs form when charged particles from the solar wind travel outward and encounter atoms from the interstellar medium. Because the ENAs are neutral, they do not react to any magnetic fields. Some of these ENAs travel toward the inner solar system and are captured by the IMAP spacecraft. compared to its partners Hi and Lo. Ultra is a multipixel camera that employs a dual pair of collectors mounted at differing angles (90 and 45 degrees) to the spin axis of IMAP and captures ENAs that come from the region between the The boundary marking one of the outer limits of the Sun's influence. At the termination shock, solar wind particles slow down as they begin to press into the particles forming the interstellar medium. The solar wind particles then continue to travel outward at a slower rate of speed. This is similar to cars speeding along a highway which then slow down as they encounter many more cars involved in a traffic jam. The jammed cars continue to move outward, although much more slowly. and the The outermost boundary of the heliopause formed where the Sun's solar wind and the interstellar medium, and their associated magnetic fields, meet. of the heliosphere. Ultra views a large section of the sky with each rotation, providing data for an initial image of that region of the heliosphere in a matter of weeks. Ultra’s wide field of view not only captures the spectra and spatial differentiation happening at the nose of the heliosphere, but also the changes in particle pressures from the interaction of the heliosphere with 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.. Despite Ultra’s quick sketch of what is happening, it is the combination of Lo, Hi, and Ultra working together that is needed to create the full and detailed maps and physical understanding that IMAP will provide.
We recently promoted Dr. Matina Gkioulidou into the instrument lead position for IMAP-Ultra, which is being built and tested at APL. She brings with her a great passion for the IMAP mission and what it will reveal to us that is happening at the very edge of the solar system that strengthens our rallying cheer of GO IMAP!
IMAP Team Spotlight Feature: Matina Gkioulidou
Dr. Matina Gkioulidou - Photo courtesy of Dr. Gkioulidou
As a young student in Greece, Dr. Matina Gkioulidou had an intense curiosity for understanding how the natural world works. While she didn’t know then that this was named physics, that investigative curiosity drew her to classes and activities that allowed her to observe and discover answers to her questions of why and how things happened in nature.
As a middle school student, it was a documentary on the Voyager missions that awoke her to the possibility of being a researcher for a career. As she watched the elated, cheering scientists gathered around the monitor presenting the first up-close images of the outer planets, she was deeply impressed, “Getting something from out there, and everybody working together as a team, and so happy about their achievements... That’s what did it for me.” It wasn’t until she spent a semester studying as an exchange student in Italy as part of her undergraduate physics program, however, that she was introduced to the field of space physics, dividing her interest between this new-to-her field and the astrophysics that initially drew her in. It was in space physics that she completed her doctoral work at UCLA, focusing on simulations, however, rather than on instrumentation.
Her interest shifted from making predictions to data analysis when she arrived at APL to work with the Van Allen Probes mission data. This led to the realization that in order to best understand the data, an understanding of the instrument is essential. A chance to do exactly this came when she got involved with the JENI instrument on the JUICE mission, soon to be launched on its way to study Jupiter’s The region around a planetary body dominated by the planet’s magnetic interference.-moon interactions. JENI also happened to be the heritage instrument for IMAP-Ultra. With encouragement from Dr. Don Mitchell, Matina saw in the IMAP mission a great opportunity to use this experience with JENI and engage with the entire instrumentation process from development to collecting data. An added bonus for her was that the IMAP research objectives nudged her back towards her original interest: astrophysics.
While physics has been a larger interest from a young age, Matina also enjoys classical literature, horror films, live music concerts, and hanging out with good friends. She occasionally tends to annoy some of her colleagues by not sharing their passion for science fiction, but something unique that she does find exciting is tango dancing. Being able to return to social dancing soon is something she truly looks forward to.
When it comes to the exciting possibilities related to this mission, Matina’s hopes are simple, but essential at their In solar astronomy, the innermost part of the Sun, where energy is generated by nuclear reactions.: that IMAP launches successfully and sends back data showing something new and unexpected.
When it comes to the importance of this mission, she tells us: “It is important to realize that if we want to investigate other star systems or exoplanets for habitability, we need to understand our own solar system’s home within 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., first.”
Matina also thinks that it is incredibly exciting that IMAP will not only be remotely observing what is happening at the boundary between our heliosphere and the interstellar space, with instruments like IMAP-Ultra, but that it will also be able to take in situ measurements closer to the sun, giving us real time 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. and measuring locally the particles that will eventually make to the edge of our solar system. GO IMAP!