Astrophysics (Index)About

PUNCH

(Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere, SMEX 15)
(4 microsatellites to observe the Sun)

PUNCH (for Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) is a NASA mission consisting of four microsatellites to observe the Solar corona. One satellite carries NFI (for "Narrow Field Imager", which includes a visible light coronagraph) and also carries STEAM (for "Student Thermal Energetic Activity Monitor"). The other three each carry a WFI (for "Wide Field Imager"), which will observe larger fields that overlap enough to be stitched together. The imaging captures polarization, and from the data, three-dimensional data regarding the corona can be obtained. The current plan is to share a launch with SPHEREx in April 2025.


(solar,space,NASA)
Further reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polarimeter_to_Unify_the_Corona_and_Heliosphere
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/punch/
https://punch.space.swri.edu/
https://blogs.nasa.gov/punch/
https://blogs.nasa.gov/punch/2021/07/27/nasas-punch-mission-to-study-the-suns-environment-moves-toward-launch/

Index