A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched NASA's Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) into space at 1:32 PM Polish time on Wednesday. IMAP will help investigate two important scientific questions in the heliosphere: the acceleration of energetic particles and the interaction of the solar wind with the local interstellar medium.
As explained on the NASA website, the mission will use 10 scientific instruments to paint a comprehensive picture of what's happening in space - from high-energy particles from the Sun, to magnetic fields in interplanetary space, to the remnants of exploded stars.
One of these devices is the Polish GLOWS (GLObal solar Wind Structure) instrument, a photometer designed and manufactured at the Space Research Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences. It is the first instrument ever fully designed and built in Poland for NASA - and now GLOWS has successfully established communication with Earth, and started sending back unique data collected in space.
The device aims to study the structure of the solar wind by observing its afterglow in the far ultraviolet. It will detect photons (i.e., elementary particles, quanta of light) with a wavelength of 121.5 nanometers, known as Lyman-alpha. This far ultraviolet band does not reach the Earth's surface because it is absorbed by the atmosphere. Therefore, observations of this wavelength must be conducted in space.
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Source: IAR, PAP, polskieradio.pl