E-Mail
SAN ANTONIO April 27, 2021 The Polarimeter to UNify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) mission has selected four early career scientists as associate investigators to pursue solar science under the mentorship of senior PUNCH science team members. Southwest Research Institute is leading PUNCH, a NASA Small Explorer (SMEX) mission that will integrate understanding of the Sun s corona, the outer atmosphere visible during total solar eclipses, with the solar wind filling the solar system.
The solar wind, a supersonic stream of charged particles emitted by the Sun, fills the heliosphere, the bubble-like region of space encompassing our solar system. Its boundary, where the interstellar medium and solar wind pressures balance, ends the sphere of the Sun s influence.