06-12-2025

Huge 'coronal mass ejection' captured by NASA's new solar mission

Earth.com staff writer

Early data from NASA’s new PUNCH mission are already revealing how solar storms move through the solar system. The four-spacecraft constellation, now in its final commissioning phase, is giving scientists an unprecedented view of how coronal mass ejections (CMEs) form and travel.

The data also shows how these massive bursts of solar plasma interact with the space environment surrounding Earth.

These insights were presented at the 246th meeting of the American Astronomical Society by Dr. Craig DeForest of the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI).

The mission, known formally as the Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH), aims to map the solar wind and solar atmosphere as a continuous system from the Sun’s surface to interplanetary space.

Single view across the solar system

“These preliminary movies show that PUNCH can actually track space weather across the solar system and view the corona and solar wind as a single system,” said Dr. DeForest.

“This big-picture view is essential to helping scientists better understand and predict space weather driven by CMEs, which can disrupt communications, endanger satellites, and create auroras on Earth.”

The system’s four suitcase-sized satellites operate as one coordinated array, creating what is effectively an 8,000-mile-wide virtual telescope.

NASA’s PUNCH mission, led by SwRI, used its Narrow Field Imager to collect images of solar activity. By blocking the Sun’s bright face, NFI captures the Sun’s atmosphere in unprecedented detail. The June 3 CME shown at the top of the image grew to enormous size, 100 times that of the Sun, as it traveled across the solar system. Credit: NASA/SwRI — NASA’s PUNCH mission, led by SwRI, used its Narrow Field Imager to collect images of solar activity. By blocking the Sun’s bright face, NFI captures the Sun’s atmosphere in unprecedented detail. The June 3 CME shown at the top of the image grew to enormous size, 100 times that of the Sun, as it traveled across the solar system. Click image to enlarge. Credit: NASA/SwRI

By combining images from each satellite, the mission maps the Sun’s outer atmosphere transforming into the solar wind.

This stream of charged particles constantly flows from the Sun and shapes conditions throughout the solar system.

Camera captures solar events

Each of the four spacecraft carries a specialized camera designed to detect faint, fast-moving solar structures.

Three satellites house Wide Field Imagers, which can see the entire sweep of a CME as it bursts from the Sun and expands outward.

The fourth satellite features a Narrow Field Imager. Essentially a coronagraph, it blocks the Sun’s intense brightness to capture sharper views of the faint corona.

The first images already include a CME observed in June. These images give scientists detailed snapshots of the Sun’s outer layers during plasma ejections.

Tracking the journey in 3D

Until now, such events were only partly visible, often from fragmented ground-based or spacecraft perspectives.

PUNCH now enables continuous tracking of a CME’s full journey from the Sun‘s surface through interplanetary space.

“These first integrated images of our home in space are astonishing, but the best is yet to come,” noted Dr. DeForest.

Video credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

“Once the spacecraft are in their final formation and the ground processing is fully sighted over the next few months, we’ll be able to track the solar wind and space weather in 3D throughout our neighborhood in space.”

Predicting space weather

PUNCH launched into orbit on March 11, 2025 with a clear goal: to better understand how solar activity evolves from surface events into large-scale space weather. This weather affects both Earth and spacecraft.

The mission’s unique orbit and imaging capabilities allow it to deliver 3D data on solar material as it travels across the inner solar system.

Space weather caused by solar flares and CMEs can interfere with satellite operations, affect astronauts, and disrupt power grids on Earth.

By capturing these phenomena in real time, PUNCH reveals their origins and paths more clearly than ever before. This knowledge is essential for predicting their impacts.

The solar storm mission also marks a technological milestone.

With its small, coordinated spacecraft and integrated imaging strategy, PUNCH represents a new kind of space observatory. It is compact, cost-effective, and capable of delivering continuous, wide-field observations over vast distances.

Looking ahead with PUNCH

As the four spacecraft move into final positioning, mission scientists expect to refine their data even further.

Over the coming months, ground teams will complete processing pipelines that stitch together images from all four satellites. The result will be unprecedented 3D movies of the solar wind and corona in motion.

The mission will also shed light on basic questions about how solar material and storms change as they leave the Sun.

Why do some bursts move faster than others? How do solar storms evolve as they pass planets and spacecraft? And what clues in their formation could help scientists issue earlier warnings?

With PUNCH, scientists are now seeing space weather as one continuous, connected process – from the moment it ignites at the Sun to the moment it reaches Earth.

The early data has already begun to change how researchers visualize the solar system’s dynamic environment – and in time, it may change how we respond to it.

Information for this article was obtained from a NASA press release.

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