Particle.news
Download on the App Store
4 ARTICLES
·
8h ago

NASA Sets No-Earlier-Than Sept. 23 IMAP Launch to Map the Heliosphere

Operating from Sun–Earth L1, the probe will map the heliosphere’s edge, providing near‑real‑time space‑weather alerts.

NASA/Princeton University/Patrick McPike
Image

Overview

  • The Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe is slated to launch no earlier than Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025, to study the Sun’s protective bubble around the solar system.
  • Positioned about 1 million miles from Earth at L1, IMAP will deliver near‑real‑time solar‑wind data and roughly 30 minutes of warning for hazardous particles headed toward Earth.
  • Its 10‑instrument payload includes three energetic neutral atom imagers that will trace particle origins and construct detailed maps of the heliosphere’s boundary.
  • Building on results from Voyager and IBEX, IMAP is designed to provide about 30× higher‑resolution and faster global measurements of the heliosphere.
  • The mission will directly sample interstellar dust and analyze its elemental composition, and it is led by principal investigator David McComas with 27 partner institutions, with the spacecraft built and operated by Johns Hopkins APL under NASA Goddard oversight.