A NASA-funded CubeSat, of the size of a bread loaf, has been deployed into space from the International Space Station to study soft X-ray emissions from the Sun that can affect communications systems on Earth.
The Miniature X-Ray Solar Spectrometer (MinXSS) CubeSat began its journey into space on May 16 and will operate for up to 12 months, NASA said.
The CubeSat will observe soft X-rays from the Sun, which can disrupt Earth's upper atmosphere and hamper radio and Global Positioning System (GPS) signals travelling through the region.
The intensity of the soft X-ray emissions emitted from the Sun is continuously changing over a large range - with peak emission levels occurring during large eruptions on the Sun called solar flares.
MinXSS data will also help understand the physics behind solar flares.
The soft X-rays carry information about the temperature, density and chemical composition of material in the Sun's atmosphere, allowing scientists to trace how events like flares and other processes heat the surrounding material in the Sun's atmosphere - which are still being debated among solar scientists.
CubeSats are a new, low-cost tool for space science missions. Instead of the traditional space science missions that carry a significant number of custom-built, state-of-the-art instruments, CubeSats are designed to take narrowly targeted scientific observations, with only a few instruments, often built from off-the-shelf components.
MinXSS uses a commercially purchased X-ray spectrometer for a detector and an extendable tape measure as a radio antenna.
The MinXSS was developed by the University of Colorado Boulder under the leadership of principal investigator Tom Woods.
It was launched via the NASA CubeSat Launch Initiative programme in December last year.
