Nasa teams up with ESA on new sun‑observing instrument

NASA plans to build an advanced space instrument to observe the Sun. The Joint EUV Coronal Diagnostic Investigation (JEDI) will be placed aboard the European Solar Observatory Vigil, currently under construction by the ESA.

NASA has decided to create the Joint EUV Coronal Diagnostic Investigation (JEDI), which will use two specially designed telescopes to monitor the solar corona's activity, focusing primarily on its middle part. The solar corona is the region where the solar wind and various phenomena, including violent phenomena crucial for space weather, such as coronal eruptions, originate.

The JEDI telescopes will observe the Sun in the extreme ultraviolet range. This band is invisible to the human eye but provides information about our star's behaviour.

JEDI is intended to be an integral part of the European Vigil observatory. This observatory is planned to be launched into space in 2031 and placed in a specific location known as the 5th Lagrange point in the Earth-Sun system. Much like the 4th Lagrange point, this point forms an equilateral triangle with the Earth and the Sun.

This point is located in the Earth's orbit around the Sun, precisely 60 degrees behind our planet. A distinctive feature of this point is that an instrument placed in it naturally maintains its position. Additionally, placing the instrument in this location will allow observing the Sun from a new perspective.

"JEDI’s observations will help us link the features we see on the Sun’s surface with what we measure in the solar atmosphere, the corona," explains Nicola Fox from NASA.

"Combined with Vigil’s first-of-its-kind, eagle eye view of the Sun, this will change the way we understand the Sun’s drivers of space weather – which in turn can lead to improved warnings to mitigate space weather effects on satellites and humans in space as well as on Earth," she adds.