Solar Flame in 304 and 171-angstrom wavelengths by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
NASA’s CURIE mission, which launches on Tuesday, is set to investigate the unresolved origins of radio waves coming from the Sun. CURIE will use a unique technique to study these radio waves and improve our understanding of the Sun’s activity.
Scientists first noticed these radio waves decades ago, explained NASA, and over the years they’ve determined the radio waves come from solar flares and giant eruptions on the Sun called coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, which are a key driver of space weather that can impact satellite communications and technology at Earth. But no one knows where the radio waves originate within a CME.
The CURIE mission aims to advance our understanding using a technique called low frequency radio interferometry, which has never been used in space before. This technique relies on CURIE’s two independent spacecraft — together no bigger than a shoebox — that will orbit Earth about two miles apart. This separation allows CURIE’s instruments to measure tiny differences in the arrival time of radio waves, which enables them to determine exactly where the radio waves came from.
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“This is a very ambitious and very exciting mission,” said Principal Investigator David Sundkvist, a researcher at the University of California, Berkeley. “This is the first time that someone is ever flying a radio interferometer in space in a controlled way, and so it’s a pathfinder for radio astronomy in general.”
The CubeSat Radio Interferometry Experiment, or CURIE, is a recently launched NASA mission designed to investigate the origins of solar radio waves. It achieved liftoff today, July 9th, 2024, aboard a European Space Agency Ariane 6 rocket.
Its goal is to understand where radio waves originate from the Sun, particularly during solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs). These events are drivers of space weather, which can impact satellites and Earth-based technologies. CURIE is the first mission to use low-frequency radio interferometry in space to study these radio waves. This technique relies on two separate spacecraft, each about the size of a shoebox, working together in orbit.
CURIE will launch aboard an ESA (European Space Agency) Ariane 6 rocket in early July from the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana. The rocket will take CURIE to 360 miles above Earth’s surface, where it can get a clear view of the Sun’s radio waves.
Once in its circular orbit, the two adjoined NASA CURIE spacecraft will establish communication with ground stations before orienting and separating. When the separated satellites are in formation, their dual eight-foot antennas will deploy and start collecting data.
