NASA announced Tuesday that it has selected a new instrument to study the Sun and its massive solar eruptions. The Joint EUV Coronal Diagnostic Investigation (JEDI) will capture images of the Sun in extreme ultraviolet light, a type of light invisible to our eyes but crucial for revealing the Sun’s underlying mechanisms.
Once aboard the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Vigil space weather mission, JEDI’s two telescopes will focus on the middle layer of the solar corona. This region of the Sun’s atmosphere is key in creating the solar wind and the solar eruptions that cause space weather.
The Vigil mission, set to launch in 2031, will provide continuous space weather data from the Sun-Earth Lagrange point 5. This stable point, located about 60 degrees behind Earth in its orbit, will offer a new vantage point for space weather researchers. NASA’s JEDI will be the first instrument to provide a constant view of the Sun in extreme ultraviolet light from this perspective, offering valuable data for research and supporting Vigil’s space weather monitoring capabilities.
“JEDI’s observations will help us link features on the Sun’s surface with measurements in the solar atmosphere, the corona,” said Nicola Fox, associate administrator of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters. “Combined with Vigil’s unique view of the Sun, this will revolutionize our understanding of the Sun’s drivers of space weather, leading to improved warnings that can mitigate space weather effects on satellites, astronauts, and Earth.”
The JEDI project is led by Don Hassler at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, and funded by NASA’s Heliophysics Space Weather Program with a budget not to exceed $45 million. The Living With a Star Program of the Explorers & Heliophysics Projects Division at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center will provide management oversight.–News Desk