To get a global view of Earth’s magnetosphere, NASA’s Lunar Environment Heliospheric X-ray Imager (LEXI) is set for a trip to the moon. Scheduled to take off from the Kennedy Space Center in or after mid-January, the instrument will take the first full images of the magnetic field around Earth, which will help researchers reveal how the field fends off solar winds and weather.
“We’re trying to get this big picture of Earth’s space environment,” said Boston University physicist and LEXI’s principal investigator Brian Walsh in a press release. “A lot of physics can be esoteric or difficult to follow without years of specific training, but this will be science that you can see.”
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