NASA’s PUNCH Mission Captures a Year of the Sun’s Restless Corona
NASA’s PUNCH spacecraft have been observing the sun since June 2025 using a coronagraph to block direct sunlight. Newly processed footage shows the solar corona’s charged particles tracing magnetic field lines and erupting in coronal mass ejections. The observations help scientists study the corona’s particle density and magnetic structure.
PUNCH stands for Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere. Its four spacecraft circle Earth over the poles, aligned and calibrated to keep the sun continuously in view. The Narrow Field Imager uses a coronagraph to block direct sunlight, producing an artificial eclipse so the faint corona can be recorded.
The processed footage also captures background stars, Venus, Mercury, and comet C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS), which passed near the sun on April 19, 2026. Engineers corrected interference from sunlight reflected by Earth, which initially drowned out the corona’s faint emissions. The observations trace charged particles moving along magnetic field lines and erupting as coronal mass ejections.
Improved views of the sun’s corona may help forecasters anticipate space weather that can affect satellites, astronauts, aviation, power grids, and radio communications. Scientists and mission planners could use such data to better understand solar eruptions and their timing. The public may benefit indirectly through more reliable technology and infrastructure, while researchers gain a shared resource for studying the sun-Earth connection. These are potential benefits, not guaranteed outcomes.