NASA’s upcoming PUNCH mission, launching on February 27, aims to solve key solar mysteries, particularly how the sun’s corona connects to the solar wind and forms the heliosphere—a vast region that encases our entire solar system.

The mission, consisting of four small satellites, will create 3D observations of the inner heliosphere.

PUNCH will provide insights into how the corona transitions into the solar wind and help improve space weather forecasting, which has significant implications for both auroras and potential threats to power grids, Space.com has reported.

The mission will launch alongside NASA’s SPHEREx observatory aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

Written by B.C. Begley