NASA's CODEX to Unveil Solar Wind Mysteries in 2024 SpaceX Mission

October 30, 2024
NASA's CODEX to Unveil Solar Wind Mysteries in 2024 SpaceX Mission
  • Co-investigator Nicholeen Viall emphasizes that CODEX will enable scientists to track the evolution of solar wind structures from their formation in the corona to their outward journey into space.

  • The instrument aims to investigate why the solar wind reaches temperatures around 1.8 million degrees Fahrenheit, significantly hotter than the Sun's surface, and travels at nearly a million miles per hour.

  • NASA's Coronal Diagnostic Experiment (CODEX) is scheduled to launch in November 2024 aboard SpaceX's 31st commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station.

  • Designed as a solar coronagraph, CODEX will block sunlight to observe the Sun's outer atmosphere, or corona, providing new insights into the solar wind's origin and evolution.

  • CODEX will analyze two types of solar wind: one that streams directly outward and another that forms from opened magnetic field lines, releasing hot plasma into the solar wind.

  • This research is critical for improving space weather predictions, akin to understanding atmospheric conditions for hurricanes, and will aid in preparing for space weather impacts on Earth and spacecraft.

  • CODEX will complement ongoing missions like the Solar Orbiter and NASA's Parker Solar Probe, enhancing our understanding of solar wind formation and its variations in space.

  • By being stationed on the space station, CODEX will conduct unobstructed observations of the solar corona, coinciding with a period of high solar activity known as solar maximum.

  • The instrument builds on a history of similar experiments, including ground-based tests during solar eclipses and the 2019 BITSE balloon experiment, which confirmed the technique but did not meet long-term scientific goals.

  • The CODEX project is a collaborative effort involving NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, and Italy’s National Institute for Astrophysics.

  • Principal investigator Jeffrey Newmark describes CODEX as both a technology demonstration and a scientific instrument, enhancing traditional density measurements with special filters for temperature and speed.

  • During solar maximum, CODEX will measure the temperatures of plasma 'blobs' created during the solar cycle, with expectations of their locations changing due to increased magnetic complexity.

Summary based on 3 sources


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