NASA has announced that it has selected a new instrument to study the Sun and how it causes massive solar eruptions. The Joint EUV Coronal Diagnostic Investigation (JEDI) will allow us to image the Sun in extreme ultraviolet light, a type of light that is invisible to our eyes but reveals many of the underlying mechanisms of solar activity.
Once integrated aboard the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Vigil space weather mission, the two JEDI telescopes will focus on the middle layer of the solar corona, an area of the Sun’s atmosphere that plays a key role in creating the solar wind and solar flares that cause space weather.
The Vigil space mission, scheduled for launch in 2031, is expected to provide round-the-clock space weather data from a unique position at the Sun-Earth Lagrange 5 point, a gravitationally stable point located approximately 60 degrees behind the Earth in its orbit. This vantage point will give researchers and space weather forecasters a new perspective on the Sun and its eruptions.
NASA’s JEDI will be the first instrument to provide a continuous view of the Sun from this vantage point in extreme ultraviolet light, giving scientists a treasure trove of new data for research while supporting Vigil’s ability to monitor space weather.
“The JEDI observations will help us connect the features we see on the surface of the Sun with what we measure in the solar atmosphere, the corona,” said Nicola Fox, assistant administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC.
In his opinion, this will change our understanding of how the Sun affects space weather, which in turn could lead to better warnings to mitigate the impact of space weather on satellites and people in space and on Earth.
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