NASA Just Parked a Spacecraft 1 Million Miles from Earth, and Almost No One's Talking About It
The Daily Galaxy • • science
Key Points:
- NASA’s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) has reached the Sun-Earth Lagrange point (L1) after a 3.5-month journey, positioning it to map the heliosphere’s outer boundary that shields the solar system from galactic radiation.
- Launched on September 24, 2025, IMAP completed final orbital maneuvers on January 10, 2026, achieving a stable orbit around L1 to gain an uninterrupted view of solar particles and interstellar material.
- IMAP’s ten scientific instruments have been collecting preliminary data on solar wind, energetic neutral atoms, and interstellar dust, with full mission operations set to begin on February 1, 2026.
