PUNCH mission instruments collect first images

NASA's sun-studying PUNCH mission captures its 1st-light images. Everything looks great so far

NASA's PUNCH sun-studying mission has seen first light — and the team says all four instruments are indeed working as expected.

PUNCH mission instruments collect first images

The Southwest Research Institute-led Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) mission collected its first images following its March 11 launch into polar orbit around Earth. The mission's four small suitcase-sized spacecraft will act as a single virtual instrument 8,000 miles across to image the solar corona, the sun's outer atmosphere, as it transitions into the solar wind that fills and defines our solar system.

In March 2025, NASA launched four small PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) satellites into low Earth orbit (570 km) to study the Sun and solar wind. Already in April, the satellites successfully transmitted the first test images, thereby confirming the functioning of their cameras and instruments on board. The PUNCH project includes one satellite... The post NASA launched PUNCH satellites to observe the Sun and predict magne…

PUNCH sees first light

NASA’s Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) mission launched March 12, sending up a constellation of four Earth-orbiting satellites with the goal of studying how the Sun’s activity influences the space environment around Earth. This week, the four satellites opened their cameras to the sky and captured their so-called first light images inContinue reading "PUNCH sees first light, prepares to study how the Sun creates our space…