Boulder scientist to lead NASA sun project

BOULDER — Don Hassler, science program director at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, is leading a team of scientists tasked with developing a new instrument for NASA to study massive solar eruptions on the Sun, according to an agency news release.

NASA’s Joint EUV coronal Diagnostic Investigation, or JEDI, instrument will be integrated into the European Space Agency’s Vigil space weather mission, expected to launch in 2031.

“JEDI’s observations will help us link the features we see on the Sun’s surface with what we measure in the solar atmosphere, the corona,” Nicola Fox, associate administrator of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA headquarters in Washington, said in a prepared statement. “Combined with Vigil’s first-of-its-kind, eagle eye view of the Sun, this will change the way we understand the Sun’s drivers of space weather – which in turn can lead to improved warnings to mitigate space weather effects on satellites and humans in space as well as on Earth.”

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