From the Moon, NASA’s LEXI Will Reveal Earth’s Magnetic Shield

NASA’s next mission to the Moon will carry an instrument called LEXI (the Lunar Environment Heliospheric X-ray Imager), which will provide the first-ever global view of the magnetic environment that shields Earth from solar radiation.

From the surface of the Moon, LEXI will capture wide-field images of Earth's magnetic environment, or magnetosphere, in low-energy (or "soft") X-rays. LEXI will study changes in the magnetosphere and help us learn more about how it interacts with a stream of particles from the Sun called the solar wind, which can pose hazards for Artemis astronauts traveling to the Moon.

Learn more about LEXI and its CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) flight to the Moon from Hyunju Connor, LEXI co-investigator at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

More on LEXI: https://science.nasa.gov/science-rese...