19-05-2025
PUNCH mission: Nasa snaps a picture of a rainbow in space
Nasa has released a picture of a rainbow in space!The image was created by putting together photos taken by three instruments from their newly-launched PUNCH mission. It's the first rainbow-coloured view of the sky to be taken by the US space expedition is hoping to reveal new details about how the Sun's corona moves through the solar system as the solar wind.
What's happened?
PUNCH is the first mission designed to measure the corona and solar wind in 3D, by studying the direction light travels. Last month, a camera on board one of the four satellites which make up PUNCH took three images in succession to create the multi-coloured view. The image shows the faint glow from dust orbiting the Sun. The different colours represent the different strengths and directions of light and the finished picture gives scientists new information on the movement of solar to Nasa, these early images also help the mission team confirm that PUNCH's cameras are working properly.
What is Nasa's PUNCH mission?
Nasa's Punch mission is made up four small satellites which are in low Earth orbit, observing the Sun and its to the US Space Agency, the plan is for them to make a global 3D picture of the entire inner heliosphere - that's the protective bubble of particles and magnetic fields created by the Sun which surrounds the planets and the Kuiper doing this, Nasa hope to find out more about how the Sun's outermost layer of its atmosphere - called the corona - becomes the solar mission was launched in March 2025 and is expected to last around two years.
