A unexampled NASA commission is already collecting data and producing striking images of the solar system . Launched in March , the PUNCH ( polariscope to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere ) mission aims to study the sun ’s corona and how the sun interact with the extensive environs of the solar system . Made up of four low bag - sized satellites , the mission is able to catch a continuous view of the intact inner solar arrangement thanks to a photographic camera place on each satellite .
Before PUNCH can start out doing scientific discipline though , its instruments require to be brought online . As part of that process , PUNCH ’s extensive Field Imager 2 trance an image of the zodiacal light coming from the Sunday . This faint glow , often regard before sunrise and known as imitation sunrise , is a result of sunlight being dissipate by the dust which float through the solar system .
In the full image below , you could see a rainbow of zodiacal lighting , with the posture of the sun commemorate by a star . The mental image uses color to represent features of the brightness level : the chromaticity of the light represents its charge , and the amount of saturation represents the degree of polarisation . This data also shows background stars in white , like the Pleiades asterisk cluster above the center field of the range of a function and the Hyades wiz clump , a V - shaped cluster located toward the upper left wing .
On April 18, 2025, the WFI-2 instrument (which captured its first light on April 14) took images through all three of its polarizers in succession for the first time to create this view. The image is colorized to show the polarization (or angle) of the zodiacal light, a faint glow from dust orbiting the Sun.NASA/SwRI
Other legal document on board PUNCH also collect other data point , include one which captured a salient opinion of the moon . This icon was accept by the Narrow Field Imager ( NFI ) , which is a type of instrument squall a coronagraph that has a dark magnetic disk that is used to immobilize out light from the Dominicus . That allow less bright objects to be seen — in this fount , the moon .
The NFI will be used to study the sun ’s corona , so the determination of this image was to check whether the moon would obscure the view — and the unspoiled word is that the moon wo n’t interpose with the scientific discipline data , as it is n’t too bright compare to the background light being studied .
PUNCH will now continue collecting data , with two more instrument to be commission within the next few hebdomad before full science operation begin in June .
During commissioning, PUNCH’s NFI instrument captured this image of the new Moon as it passed by the Sun in the sky on April 27, 2025.NASA/SwRI
